U.S. Utilizes Metamaterials to Create New Optical Devices

Engineers at Duke University in the United States have recently used metamaterials to create new optical devices that use infrared light to form holograms. Researchers said that the use of complex and diverse metamaterials will greatly improve the ability of humans to control light and change the appearance of optics. The study was published in the recently published "Nature • Materials" magazine.

Metamaterials are not composed of single substances, but are artificial composite structures or composite materials that have extraordinary physical properties that natural materials do not possess. Through the structural orderly design on the key physical dimensions of the material, the limitations of certain apparent natural laws are broken through, and thus an extraordinary function beyond the ordinary nature inherent in nature is obtained.

Conventional optical devices generally have lenses with a highly polished surface. The lenses are made of a transparent glass or plastic material, and their ability to control light is limited by the properties of natural materials. New optical devices made of metamaterials do not have conventional lenses. They are more like a small blind, but their ability to control the direction of light far exceeds that of conventional lenses. Researchers made the materials used to make computer chips into thin brick shapes, and then etched metal elements on these thin bricks to form a grid pattern. The researchers stated that there are infinite possibilities for the arrangement of metal elements, and their arrangement can be designed according to the desired optical characteristics.

Engineers at Duke University pointed out that although this progress is achieved in specific wavelengths of light, using the same principles to design and fabricate metamaterials can control most frequencies of light and can be designed based on the structure of metamaterials. More advanced and sophisticated optical devices. The ability of humans to make optical devices is limited by the fact that natural materials will go away with the use of metamaterials. In the future, humans can handle light as they wish.

Although human understanding of light is far from satisfactory, the research and application of light has never stopped. In particular, in recent decades, optical development has entered a new era with ever-changing changes. Optics has become a modern science and technology. One of the most active and cutting edge areas. Duke University’s new approach to using metamaterials opens the door to advanced optical new equipment. This method can be easily extended to a wide range of optical devices. These new devices will have a large number of new features and will be widely used in practice.