How Far Are We from Making Metamaterials by Self‐Organization? The Microstructure of Highly Anisotropic Particles with an SRR‐Like Geometry

Abstract

Metamaterials offer new unusual electromagnetic properties, which have already been demonstrated, and many postulated new functionalities are yet to be realized. Currently, however, metamaterials are mostly limited by narrow band behavior, high losses, and limitation in making genuinely 3D materials. In order to overcome these problems an overlap between metamaterial concepts and materials science is necessary. Engineered self‐organization is presented as a future approach to metamaterial manufacturing. Using directional solidification of eutectics, the first experimental realization of self‐organized particles with a split‐ring resonator‐like cross section is demonstrated. This unusual morphology/microstructure of the eutectic composite has a fractal character. With the use of TEM and XRD the clear influence of the atomic crystal arrangement on the microstructure geometry is presented. The materials obtained present very high anisotropy and can be obtained in large pieces. Metallodielectric structures can be created by etching and filling the space with metal. The next steps in the development of self‐organized materials exhibiting unusual properties are discussed.

On Negative Index Metamaterial Spacers and Their Unusual Optical Properties

“…This imposes stringent conditions on the practical realization of metaspacers with effective medium response especially in optical frequencies. Therefore, nano-chemistry based bottomup self-assembly approaches [48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55] may be inevitable for optical frequencies. However, without much trouble, the metaspacer concept that we introduced here can be also applied to low frequencies due to the scalability of electromagnetic waves.…”

Optical properties of a fabricated self-assembled bottom-up bulk metamaterial

“…Although such MMs usually consist of amorphously arranged meta-atoms and exhibit a smaller filling fraction, they are promising candidates because of their potential 3D extension as demonstrated for split-ring resonators [4]. Alternatively, clusters of spheres were also recently fabricated by related technologies [5].…”

Evolution of silver in a eutectic-based Bi2O3–Ag metamaterial

“…Recently, eutectic solidification [15,16] has been proposed as one of the most promising bottom-up methods for manufacturing of metamaterials [17][18][19][20], plasmonic materials [21,22] and photonic crystals [23,24]. Eutectic solidification enables crystallization of a two-phase solid, often with an interesting selforganized micro-/nanostructure (typical are rod-like and lamellar structures) from a miscible liquid phase at a certain temperature [25].…”