Padilla has been in the metamaterials field since 2000, when he co-authored the first paper on negative index materials with Smith. Padilla is particularly well known for his work at terahertz (THz) frequencies, as well as in the area of active and dynamically controlled metamaterials. While working under a Director’s Postdoctoral Fellowship at Los Alamos National Laboratory, Padilla led efforts to demonstrate dynamic tuning of a semiconductor hybrid metamaterial by photodoping and voltage control. Both of these key experiments are now widely recognized and cited. Padilla’s lab specializes in the THz, infrared, optical and magneto-optic properties of novel materials utilizing various spectroscopic methods, including Fourier transform spectroscopy and ellipsometry. Padilla’s recent interests include tailoring the emissivity of objects with metamaterial coatings, and the use of active metamaterial arrays as components in THz and infrared imaging systems.
Watts, CM; Shrekenhamer, D; Montoya, J; Lipworth, G; Hunt, J; Sleasman, T; Krishna, S; Smith, DR; Padilla, WJ, Terahertz compressive imaging with metamaterial spatial light modulators, Nature Photonics 8, 605–609 (2014).
Shrekenhamer, D; Montoya, J; Krishna, S; Padilla, WJ, Four-Color Metamaterial Absorber THz Spatial Light Modulator, Advanced Optical Materials 1, 905 (2013).
Liu, X; Padilla, WJ; Dynamic Manipulation of Infrared Radiation with MEMS Metamaterials, Advanced Optical Materials 1, 559 (2013).
Shrekenhamer, D; Chen, W; Padilla, WJ, Liquid Crystal Tunable Metamaterial Absorber, Physical Review Letters 110, 177403 (2013).