Fiber optics revolutionized data transmission, yielding numerous advantages in telephone and cable television as well as cellular phones, thus replacing basic copper wire. Metamaterials, developed at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), which may be the next step in the evolution of data transmission, are poised to greatly enhance the capabilities of fiber optics.
LANL scientists John O'Hara and Toni Taylor, post-doctoral researchers Hou-Tong Chen and Abul Azad, and collaborators Willie Padilla (Boston College) and Richard Averitt (Boston University) have been working together for almost two years to create new devices capable of filtering, switching and modulating terahertz wavelength energy using metamaterials.
Metamaterials is probably one of the most popular new areas of nanotechnology research. Invisibility cloaks, lightweight lenses, stealthy antennas, and faster computers are just a few of the anticipated future applications for metamaterials.
Metamaterials are basically mimics of nature's atoms—but on a much larger scale. LANL scientists create metamaterials by depositing patterns of tiny metal rings on the surface of semiconductor wafers. Like atoms, the rings act like tiny oscillators temporarily storing and then re-emitting energy.
The size and shape of the rings determine exactly how the metamaterial will interact with the terahertz wave.
Currently, LANL is one of only a handful of research institutions developing metamaterials for terahertz wavelengths. While the LANL metamaterials concepts can be scaled to other wavelengths, such as microwaves, O'Hara says that by making metamaterials capable of interacting with terahertz waves, a long-standing technology gap may be filled, opening the door to a new class of faster electronics, high-speed communication links and novel imaging techniques.
Because the metamaterials developed at LANL are still in a discovery stage, scientists believe the technology will have endless capabilities and applications in industry and science.
Illustration of the electronically switchable terahertz metamaterial device. (Click image to enlarge)
