Throughout human history, new materials have played a pivotal role in the development of technologies and the progress of whole civilizations. Terms such as Stone Age, Bronze Age, or Silicon Valley underscore the defining societal impact that the discovery or harnessing of a new material can foment. The beginning of the 21st century has coincided with the invention of an entirely new materials platform - metamaterials - engineered multi-phase composite materials containing inclusions that often have tailored shapes, sizes, mutual arrangements and orientations. Such materials exhibit unparalleled responses to many types of wave excitations, including electromagnetic, acoustic and thermal.
Many applications of metamaterials systems and devices, e.g. next-generation electronics operating at optical frequencies, require both passive and active (amplifying or nonlinear) components. The development of metamaterials over the past decade has focused primarily on passive metamaterials. One of the two research foci of the Partnership is aimed at the development of active metamaterials: tunable, nonlinear, and amplifying. The other intriguing class of metamaterials, whose development has been pioneered by the team members, is metamaterials with hyperbolic dispersion. In one direction, the response of these unique materials to electromagnetic waves is similar to that of metals. However, in an orthogonal direction, it is similar to that of dielectrics. The studies of unparalleled classical and quantum properties of such materials (including spontaneous emission, energy transfer, and many others) comprise the second research focus of Meta-PREM. The research will be performed in a highly collaborative manner by the partners with complementary expertise and capabilities.
Meta-PREM integrates the research and education efforts of a historically black university, Norfolk State University, and three research-intensive institutions, Michigan State University, Purdue University and Cornell University. The project's education and outreach activities flow from identified complementary strengths of the partners. This synergy allows for a range of relevant programs that will benefit a diverse body of students in the full spectrum of the education continuum, especially at the graduate level. Norfolk State University's Ph.D. program in materials science and engineering is only five years old, being the only STEM doctoral program on campus. By integrating NSU's students and faculty with those at well-established graduate programs, Meta-PREM will accelerate the young doctoral program towards maturation, effectively increasing the capacity to produce a more diverse group of highly trained materials science professionals.
