Bilkent Research Spotlighted by Prestigious Physics Journal
Researchers from Bilkent University Nanotechnology Research Center (NANOTAM) have published their new scientific results on the area of metamaterials in the August 2010 issue of Applied Physics Letters, a leading journal in physics published by American Institute of Physics. This work is also featured on the cover of the August 2010 issue.
The director of NANOTAM, Prof. Dr. Ekmel Özbay, commented about conventions in scientific publishing: "The cover page of a journal is always devoted to the best and most interesting results published in the same scientific journal. This clearly shows that the quality of our scientific research work in Bilkent is internationally recognized."
The paper is devoted to the recent results obtained on chiral metamaterials, which can be used to control the properties of light for various applications. The chiral performance of the structures reported in Bilkent paper is about 10,000 times better than their equivalents that can be found in nature. Metamaterials are artificial materials engineered to provide properties that may not be readily available in nature. These engineered materials usually gain their properties from structure rather than composition, using the inclusion of small inhomogeneities to enact effective macroscopic behavior.
Bilkent NANOTAM researchers are working on photonic metamaterials that can be used for reducing the size of circuits used in optical telecommunication systems. These nanophotonic structures will also be used for cloaking, sensing, and photovoltaic applications.