Research Opportunities

Description of past research & capabilities for Metamaterials: 

The field of Metamaterials includes the research and development of numerous types of structures that exhibit optical, acoustical and mechanical properties not found in nature.  In particular, optical metamaterials include research fields of photonic crystals and plasmonic crystals besides the more traditional types of metamaterials (e.g., split-ring resonator arrays, negative index of refraction materials…).  There are a number of laboratories at CUNY that perform basic and applied research on these types of structures including:

Professor David Crouse and the CUNY Metamaterials Laboratory with over nine different projects on developing metamaterials for renewable energy devices, sensors and optical components.  Funding for the projects comes from numerous government agencies (e.g., DARPA, MDA, NSF, DOD, NASA) and industry.  A large emphasis is placed on applied research and development.  Approximately half of the lab’s projects are funded by industry with the goal of transitioning the technology to industry.  Professor Crouse is also the PI for the NSF-funded Center of Metamaterials that is being established in Spring 2011. 

Professor Godfrey Gumbs who performs theoretical research on plasmonic crystals

Professor Robert Alfano and the Institute for Ultrafast Spectroscopy and Lasers

Research/Expertise in Metamaterials

Professor Crouse and the Metamaterials Research Laboratory has over 15 years of experience in metamaterials, 25 publications on metamaterials, numerous current projects on metamaterials for renewable energy devices, sensors and optical components.  The range of research spans theoretical research (e.g., discovering new optical effects within metamaterials, development of more efficient and accurate modeling methods…) to applied research, engineering and development of solar cells, polarimetric focal plane arrays, actively configurable apertures.

Research being performed in his laboratory include:

• Modeling photonic crystals, plasmonic crystals and metamaterials using Ansoft HFSS, Sonnet Software’s CST, COMSOL, and proprietary rigorous coupled wave algorithms
• Fabrication using semiconductor device fabrication tools at CUNY, Cornell Nanoscale Science and Technology Center and Brookhaven’s Center for Functional Nanomaterials
• Structural, electrical and optical characterization at numerous laboratories at CUNY.

Capabilities of CAT for Metamaterials

Modeling capabilities include:  dedicated High Performance Computing Facility for optical, infrared, THz, RF, microwave modeling of devices.  Modeling software includes HFSS, CST, COMSOL, Silvaco Atlas and Athena, TFCalc

• Fabrication capabilities include advanced semiconductor fabrication equipment with deep UV photolithography and electron beam lithography capable of feature sizes of 10 nanometers
• Characterization capabilities include reflection, transmission, scattering, near field scanning optical microscopes (reflection and transmission modes), confocal microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, electrical testing

CAT Core Facilities & Equipment for Metamaterials Research:

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