Tailoring the internal structure of metamaterials to vary optical properties controls how they transform light--leading to applications from optical cloaking to the optical counterparts of black holes One of the hottest fields in optical research is undergoing an exciting transformation. Metamaterials research has given birth to a new field called transformation optics that promises to greatly extend the potential of assembling synthetic optical materials from subwavelength structures. The first generation of metamaterials was built from identical and uniformly spaced subwavelength structures. Interactions of the electric and magnetic fields of light waves with the subwavelength modules produced effects that are impossible in natural materials, such as negative refractive indices. Their development offered the exciting potential to design entirely new types of optical materials.
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