Metamaterials Lens

The novelty of our proposed research is that we plan to use nano-dispersed liquid crystals (NDLCs) for broadband tunable negative-zero-positive index materials to control reflection and transmission of light and capable of imaging beyond the diffractive limit of the visible spectrum. The possibility of realizing nonmagnetic negative index materials by dispersing metallic spheres in the bulk of a host anisotropic material, such as LC, will be investigated using three different approaches. LC’s can be fabricated easily and at low cost. An applied electric field or magnetic field will provide tunability through modulation of the net refractive index as shown in Phase I. LC host with parallel, tilted (45o), and fishnet groove structures will be dispersed with a binary photonic alloy that consists of plasmonic and polaritonic spheres of submicron size. Typical plasmonic/polaritonic materials for this frequency range are Ge/LiTaO3 nanospheres. Cholesteric LCs, which has an inherent chirality, will also be dispersed with binary or core-shell nanospheres. Finally, we suggest designing NIMs based on two organometallic molecules which constitute the monomer units of a chiral polymer. Although the chirality may be smaller than the critical value required for NI in the virgin material, NI nonetheless can be achieved through the introduction of plasmonic metal nanoparticles.