Physics Helps Realize Efficient Electro-Optical Materials

A physics advance introduced by Purdue University researchers paves the way toward the creation of more efficient metamaterials. By using semiconductors and by amplifying electron activity, the researchers achieved a 60% improvement in operational frequency, in pursuit of creating a metamaterial capable of functioning very high frequencies, including up to the wavelengths of the visible light spectrum. The advance is poised to significantly increase the resolution of medical scanning and scientific imaging, and could additionally reduce the size of supercomputers. The researchers set out to solve problems in the efficiency of nanophotonic materials, which bridge the gap between optics and electronics. As electrons operate at a much...