Definition of metaphotonics

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Photonics Dictionary

metaphotonics: Metaphotonics is an emerging field at the intersection of photonics, metamaterials, and nanotechnology. It involves the design, fabrication, and study of metamaterial-based optical structures and devices with unique and exotic properties not found in naturally occurring materials. Metaphotonics aims to manipulate and control light at the nanoscale, enabling the development of novel optical components and systems with unprecedented functionalities.

Metamaterials: Metaphotonics relies on metamaterials, which are artificial materials engineered to exhibit electromagnetic properties not found in naturally occurring materials. Metamaterials are typically composed of subwavelength nanostructures arranged in periodic or tailored patterns to achieve desired optical properties. By controlling the geometry, size, and arrangement of these nanostructures, metaphotonics researchers can manipulate light in ways not achievable with conventional materials.

Light manipulation: Metaphotonics enables precise control over the propagation, transmission, reflection, absorption, and polarization of light. Metamaterial-based optical elements, such as lenses, waveguides, filters, and polarizers, can exhibit unconventional optical properties, including negative refractive index, hyperbolic dispersion, and strong light-matter interactions.

Subwavelength imaging: Metaphotonics explores the development of super-resolution imaging techniques capable of resolving features smaller than the diffraction limit of conventional optics. Metamaterial-based imaging systems can achieve subwavelength spatial resolution by manipulating the near-field interactions between light and metamaterial structures.

Enhanced light-matter interactions: Metaphotonics facilitates the enhancement of light-matter interactions at the nanoscale, leading to improved performance in various optical sensing, spectroscopy, and photonic device applications. Metamaterial-based sensors, detectors, and emitters offer enhanced sensitivity, selectivity, and efficiency compared to traditional optical devices.

Applications: Metaphotonics has diverse applications in areas such as telecommunications, information technology, imaging and sensing, optical computing, quantum technologies, and photonic integration. Examples of metaphotonic devices and systems include metamaterial-based cloaking devices, superlenses, plasmonic sensors, photonic crystals, and nonlinear optical devices.

Challenges and opportunities: Challenges in metaphotonics include fabrication complexity, material loss, scalability, and integration with existing optical technologies. Ongoing research efforts focus on addressing these challenges and exploring new opportunities for harnessing the unique properties of metamaterials in practical applications.