The main scientific objective of the partners of this consortium is to develop new types of artificial materials, referred to below as metamaterials, with electromagnetic properties that cannot be found among natural materials. The results of this development should lead to a conceptually new range of radio, microwave, and optical technologies, based on revolutionary new materials made by large-scale assembly of some basic elements (nanoscopic and microscopic) in unprecedented combinations.
Metamaterials are artificial electromagnetic (multi-)functional materials engineered to satisfy the prescribed requirements. The prefix meta means after, beyond and also of a higher kind. Superior properties as compared to what can be found in nature are often underlying in the spelling of metamaterial. These new properties emerge due to specific interactions with electromagnetic fields or due to external electrical control.
Electromagnetic metamaterials will play a key role in providing new functionalities and enhancements to the future electronic devices and components, such as high-speed circuits, multifunctional smart miniature antennas and apertures, high-resolution imaging systems, smart skins, and so forth. After all, these and other systems are built on substrates and superstrates whose electromagnetic response functions define the design and performance of the systems. Consider a particular but characteristic example for the applicability of metamaterials: Recently, the theoretical concept of planar perfect lenses with "left-handed" metamaterials was proposed. Such a perfect lens would enable to circumvent resolution limitations in many optical or electromagnetic systems beyond the diffraction limit. Multitudinous applications in many areas of information technology and life science can be envisaged just for this single particular example, like e.g. better imaging systems, higher capacity optical data storage systems, more compact integrated optical telecom solutions, etc. Joint research activities of this Network will include composite materials with extreme electromagnetic properties (such as "left-handed" media and materials with null-valued effective parameters), electrically controllable materials, stop band materials, metageometries like fractals and quasi-periodical structures, artificial surfaces and sheets.
Metamaterials are, in essence, the materials of the future, since the main purpose for their study is to be able to go beyond where naturally occurring substances and current materials research have taken us. By combining different microscopic elements into large-scale designs, one will be able not only to create materials with fundamentally new properties but also to fabricate others that have properties on demand, as required by new technologies. In particular, new electromagnetic properties will allow us to control microwaves, millimetre waves, and optical light in revolutionary ways. This is the context in which the present proposal is framed.
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While at microwave frequencies the mature printed circuit board technology may be further extended, with possible straightforward transfer to SME's, the development and the realization of metamaterials at optical frequencies requires highly sophisticated technological equipment which can be only found in very well-equipped facilities closely interacting with micro- or nano-electronic and photonics industry. In this frequency range the fabrication of such new artificial materials could require the creation of new molecules or super atoms at the mesoscopic scale and, thus, can involve also chemical and physical laboratories.
The strategic objective to develop new metamaterials means opening a new branch of research in the multidisciplinary field of material physics, electromagnetics, optics, radio engineering, and electronics. At present, there are no specialists trained in this field. Participating laboratories make high-level but fragmented research and they need coordination and structuring of their efforts.
Integration of theoretical knowledge and modelling capabilities together with fabrication, testing and measurements abilities, as proposed in this application, will allow us to actually develop new materials with predefined electromagnetic properties, which will be then available for use in device applications. This is our main scientific goal, which fully agrees with the NMP priority.
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The Metamorphose initiative integrates 13 different countries around Europe from North (FIN, S) to South (E, I, GR, TR) and from East (PL, RUS) to West (UK, B) passing through its centre (F, D, CH). In all these countries, very advanced technological facilities have been developed (computing centres, nano-electronic facilities, high frequency characterization of materials), all of them being of prime importance in the lasting integration of the Metamorphose Network. To mention a few, the Institute of Electronics, Microelectronics and Nanotechnology in France is one of the largest centres for advanced technology in Europe along with Chalmers and Glasgow nodes, with a well established reputation in Optoelectronics and Nanotechnology. SMARAD and Millilab, two partners in the Finland node are recognized centres for microwave characterization acknowledged as a national Centre of Excellence and by the European Space Agency, whereas the Aachen University has a very high reputation in electro-optic sampling and near field measurements. Spanish and Finnish laboratories were among pioneers in the field of metamaterials. Everyone knows also the high reputation of East-European researchers in the topic of left-handed materials, which was introduced primarily by a Russian researcher, Prof. Veselago.
A couple of characteristic examples demonstrating how topical is this research area and how excellent is our consortium: IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagations issued two calls for special journal issues in 2002-2003, and both were on metamaterials. Among the guest editors there are only two non-US professors, Prof. Kildal and Prof. Maci, and both are partners of our consortium. The only specialized international conference in the field of metamaterials, International Conference on Electromagnetics of Complex Media was started by Prof. A. Sihvola, one of our partners. Three of our partners (A. Sihvola, S. Tretyakov, and S. Zouhdi) are members of the International Bi-anisotropics Conferences Committee (IBCC), which runs this conference series. Our partners have already organized specialized workshops and special conference sessions in the field of metamaterials.
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Restructuring and reshaping will be based on a new organizational structure, called Virtual Institute, amalgamating the experience of the researchers involved in the photonic and in the microwave fields on one hand, and on a close interaction between fundamental and device-oriented researchers on the other. This will generate a critical mass of resources and expertise in the emerging area of metamaterial science and technology. Collective management of resources in the restructured research area will avoid costly multidisciplinary environments in each institute involved in the Network by means of providing access to the excellent tools of each of them and perfecting their research and technology skills in that direction, so that only a few institutes will have to acquire the equipment for special fabrication. Following the same approach, we plan to develop a repository of the most advanced simulation tools developed by the partners specialising in the modelling area and make that available to the Network partners. The METAMORPHOSE VI will act as a means of securing long-term, self-sustaining support for European research into metamaterials.
The fundamental idea behind the research in metamaterials is to utilise already existing knowledge about the behaviour of basic materials as building blocks of more complex structures. This provides a perfect opportunity to promote real breakthroughs in understanding materials phenomena, as many unexpected properties of this general category of materials remain to be found. Good examples of this have been recently reported (e.g., superlenses using newly designed left-handed materials or laser collimation by means of materials with vanishing index of refraction).
New ways to design metamaterials, to fabricate them, to analyse and to integrate them in different technological contexts will be the main contribution to the generation of knowledge from this network. Indeed, there is an urgent need to produce this savoir faire that will make metamaterials a standard solution in future and emerging technologies. Metamaterials are certainly there, waiting to be investigated, and this network will provide the necessary framework for integration of the key elements that will make this possible to EU?s advantage. In particular, applications for radiation over different wavelength scales ranging from the microwaves to the optical regime is very suited to designing new materials with electromagnetic properties on demand with important technological areas of specific application.
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