Colloquium 2008-03-13

 

3:30 p.m. in Room 307 of the Optical Sciences Meinel Building

Speaker:

Martin Wegener

University Karlsruhe

 Photo: Martin Wegener

Title:

Photonic Metamaterials: Optics Starts Walking on Two Feet

 

Host:

Galina Khitrova

 

Abstract:

 Metamaterials are man-made tailored materials composed of sub-wavelength metallic building blocks ("photonic atoms") that are densely packed into an effective material. This allows for achieving optical material properties that simply do not occur in natural substances. Examples are magnetism at elevated frequencies, negative refractive indices, giant circular dichroism, and enhanced optical nonlinearities. Photonic metamaterials operate at optical frequencies and require nanofabrication. In this talk, we give an introduction into this emerging field and review recent progress.
CV:

Education

  • 1987 PhD (Physics), Johann Wolfgang Goethe- Universität, Frankfurt am Main

  • 1986 Diplom (Physics), Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität, Frankfurt am Main

  • 1981 Abitur, Schwalbach am Taunus

Positions

  • 2001- Coordinator of the DFG-Center for Functional Nanostructures (CFN), Universität Karlsruhe (TH)

  • 2001- Group leader, Institute of Nanotechnology, Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe

  • 1995- Professor of Physics (C4), Universität Karlsruhe (TH)

  • 1990-1995 Professor of Physics (C3), Universität Dortmund

  • 1988-1990 Postdoctoral Associate, AT&T Bell Laboratories, Holmdel (NJ), U.S.A.

Awards & Honors

  • 2006 Member of the Academy of Sciences Leopoldina

  • 2006 Carl Zeiss Research Award (together with Kurt Busch)

  • 2005 Research Award of the State of Baden-Württemberg 2005 European Union René Descartes Prize for Collaborative Research (together with Ekmel Ozbay, John Pendry, David Smith, and Costas Soukoulis)

  • 2005 CST University Publication Award

  • 2000 Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Award of Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)

  • 1998 Teaching Award of the State of Baden-Württemberg

  • 1993 Research Award of the Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach Foundation

  • 1986-1987 PhD fellowship of the State of Hessen

Other

  • 2008 Organizer of the Heraeus Workshop "Periodic Nanostructures for Photonics", Bad Honnef (together with Georg von Freymann and Stefan Linden)

  • 2008 One of the four founders of the spin-off Nanoscribe GmbH

  • 2008 Program Chair (together with Mark Stockman) OSA Topical Meeting "Plasmonics and Metamaterials", Rochester (U.S.A.)

  • 2008 Member of program committee of the metamaterial conference at SPIE Europe’s Photonic Europe 2008, Strasbourg (France)

  • 2008 Subcommittee Chairman "Nanooptics and Plasmonics", International Conference on "Quantum Electronics and Laser Science (QELS)", San Francisco (U.S.A.)

  • 2007- Member of the Advisory Board of Max Born Institute (MBI) for Nonlinear Optics and Ultrafast Spectroscopy, Berlin

  • 2007- Member of the Advisory Board of the journal "Metamaterials"

  • 2007- Member of the "Council for Research and support of Young Scientists (CRYS)" of Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)

  • 2006- Member of the Executive Board of Karlsruhe School of Optics & Photonics (KSOP)

  • 2005- Member of the Senat, Universität Karlsruhe (TH)

  • 2005- Topical Editor JOSA B (Journal of the Optical Society of America)

  • 2004- Member of the Search Committee "Technical Sciences" of the Körber Foundation

  • 2003 Chairman of the International Conference on Nonlinear Optics and Excitation Kinetics in Semiconductors (NOEKS-7), Karlsruhe (Germany)

  • 2001- Scientific Member of Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe

  • 1999-2001 Member of the Senat, Universität Karlsruhe (TH)

  • 1997-2006 Spokesperson of the DFG-Graduate College Collective Phenomena in Solids,