Materials and structures with extreme values of relative permittivities or permeability, e.g., epsilon-near-zero (ENZ) and mu-near-zero (MNZ) materials, exhibit unique wave properties such as refractive index being near zero, resulting in essentially uniform phase and very long apparent wavelengths for high frequencies in such platforms.  We have introduced and developed this concept, and have been exploring their impacts when they are merged with other platforms such as nanophotonics and quantum physics. We have shown ENZ-based enhanced tunneling through ultranarrow channels and bends with arbitrary shapes and forms, enhancement of radiation of optical emitters within ENZ-based and MNZ-based guided structures, phase front engineering, electric-based mechanical levitation as a classical analogue of the Meissner effects for the ENZ structures, and confinement of highly intense optical fields in elongated regions. We are also exploring structures with exhibiting both the ENZ and MNZ features simultaneously (i.e., epsilon-and-mu-near-zero (EMNZ) structures), leading to the notion of “static optics” with exciting possibilities in quantum photonics.   In this talk, I will give an overview of the ENZ-, MNZ- and EMNZ-based phenomena, and will discuss exciting potentials and future ideas and possibilities.

What You Will Learn/Seminar Objectives

• An understanding of the unique properties of materials with near-zero permittivity/permeability/refractive index.
• What happens when these near-zero materials are integrated with nanophotonic devices?
• Several interesting phenomena exhibited by ENZ and MNZ-based structures.
• The future potential of ENZ and MNZ materials.

Who Should Attend

• Students and professionals working in nanophotonics, optical materials, and metamaterials.
• Grad students and postdocs interested in unconventional materials, near-zero structures and their properties.
• Industrial researchers in physics of nanomaterials or nanophotonics fields.  

Level
The webinar is prepared for an intermediate level. A basic understanding of electromagnetism and photonics will be helpful.

Speaker
Nader Engheta, H. Nedwill Ramsey Professor, University of Pennsylvania.