Photonic Metamaterials for Defence and Security Applications (Les meta- materiaux photoniques pour les applications de defense et de securite).

摘要

Metamaterials are a new class of manmade ordered composites that exhibit exceptional properties not readily observed in naturally-formed materials. Most research in metamaterials has dealt with their exceptional electromagnetic properties, and thus have led to the unveiling of many promising applications in optics (the science of describing the behavior and properties of light, and the interaction of light with matter) and photonics (the science of generating, controlling, and detecting photons). One of the main reasons researchers have studied metamaterials so extensively recently is the possibility of creating a structure having a negative index of refraction (not found in naturally occurring materials). With a negative index, superlenses or hyperlenses (forming images that have resolutions that beat the diffraction limit) and cloaking devices (surrounding an object with a shell that affects the passage of light) become possible. The main focus of most recent research in metamaterials has been in the Radio Frequency (RF) regime, but because of the implications of negative indices of refraction in the visible or Infrared (IR), it was clear that the military community should try to gage the state-of-the-art of this new research field at those shorter wavelengths. To that end, in April 2008 a Workshop on Photonic Metamaterials for Defence and Security Applications was held. Nine of the top researchers in the world in the area of metamaterials were invited to speak to over 50 attendees from government, industry, and academia.