Recent progress on metamaterials in optics, thermodynamics, mechanics, and magneto-transport
Speaker: Martin Wegener, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology
Abstract: To me, “negative” effective material parameters and invisibility cloaking are among the most exciting aspects that become possible by tailored artificial materials called metamaterials. I shall discuss four recent corresponding examples from my group. First, I speak about invisible metal contacts on solar cells to increase their overall efficiency. Second, I address three-dimensional macroscopic core-shell invisibility cloaks in the diffusive regime of light propagation that work for all directions, colors, and polarizations of visible light. Third, I describe static elasto-mechanical cloaks designed by a direct lattice-transformation approach (instead of by material-parameter transformations). Fourth, I discuss three-dimensional metamaterials exhibiting a sign inversion of the classical Hall effect. A simple cubic lattice of interlinked tori made of an electron conductor, such as n-doped silicon, effectively appears like a hole conductor.
Brief Biography: After completing his PhD in physics in 1987 at Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität