MeMa

Innovative nanostructured materials for optics - basic innovation for the cluster CoOPTICS

The project MeMa is an essential part of the cluster CoOPTICS (www.cooptics.de) that drives the development of core technologies and product innovations based on the field of optics/photonics. The CoOPTICS cluster which integrates more than 250 players identified MeMa as a key measure to secure its innovative basic research in the field of nanostructured optical materials. CoOPTICS and MeMa contribute significantly to solve urgent problems of our society for the future.

Today, half a century after the discovery of the laser and more than 100 years after the revolutionary works of Carl Zeiss, Ernst Abbe and Otto Schott in Jena, the basic phenomena of optics seem to be understood. In recent years, however, a fundamentally new scientific development took place which will essentially change the face of optics: the research and application of nanostructured matter in optical systems. If the characteristic structural details of nanostructured matter are much smaller than the wavelength, the structure is perceived as an effective medium with certain optical properties. By nanostructuring material, forms become feasible as they occur in nature only with an extremely low probability. This emerging development in science, known under the term "metamaterials", opens up a new dimension for optics by using and controlling dielectric and magnetic properties.

Goals

MeMa will enable the cluster CoOPTICS to access a new scientific territory, which has the potential to completely revolutionize the optical technologies. Nanostructuring is able to realize almost any optical material functions which can be freely combined in optical micro-systems. Optical and optoelectronic systems are becoming smaller and more functional. In addition to the evolutionary improvement of optical systems, previously unavailable revolutionary features, which are up to now not accessible by means of natural matter, are realized by using metamaterials. This concerns for example the nearly free adjustability of the dielectric and magnetic dispersion, or the uncoupling of reflection and refraction. More than 100 years after the groundbreaking findings of Ernst Abbe and Carl Zeiss, the way to imaging optics can be paved with virtually unlimited resolution.

Fundamental Work

MeMa will devote its research on the topic of nanostructured metamaterials making an integrated approach of theory, technology and experimentation. The activities are divided into several areas and therewith related work objectives. Currently, the application of nanostructured metamaterials is limited caused by fundamental physical and technical problems of existing technological realisation concepts such as the high attenuation, the often undesirable anisotropy and low band width. An essential part of MeMa's research activities will focus on removing these limitations by realizing nano-colors, thin film isolation, transformation optics and super-resolution imaging systems for microscopy and lithography.
MeMa will be integrated into the training structures of the Abbe School of Photonics substantially improving the attractive graduate education by enabeling students to do their research on prevailing scientific topics.

MeMa is funded by the Thuringian federal government within the research program ProExzellenz.

 

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