Researchers at Rice University have created a metamaterial that could light the way toward high-powered optics, ultra-efficient solar cells and even cloaking devices.

The latest invention was from two excellent students, Nokolay Mirin and Naomi Halas, the former a graduate and the later an award-winning pioneer especially in nanophotonics. The new material collected light from different directions and the emission took place just in a single track. Nanocups are used for making the material and these are defined as cup shaped tiny particles.

In the February edition of the journal, Nano Letters, both the inventors talked about how light bending nanoparticles were created by isolating nanocups. Mirin was into a serious research of making thin gold film having holes of nano size, soon after he recognize that something can be thought about the knocked-out bits in establishing what he wanted. The properties of gold nanocups were identified with the earlier works of the researchers. This was possible only when Mirin suggested the possible way out to collect the nanocups which were isolated by preserving the real material.

Halas, the Rice’s Stanley C. Moore Professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering as well as the professor of biomedical engineering and chemistry said that “The truth is a lot of exciting science actually does fall in your lap by accident.” “The big breakthrough here was being able to lift the nanocups off of a structure and preserve their orientation. Then we could look specifically at the properties of these oriented nanostructures.”

What Mirin found was something different and it was about thin layers of gold deposits which were collected from different angles right onto the latex or the polystyrene nanoparticles. This was then randomly distributed over the glass substrate. The particles were embedded by the cups and this along with the dielectric particles were automatically sealed into an elastomer and then were taken off from the substrate. He also said that, “You end up with this transparent thing with structures all oriented the same way.”

Redirection of the scattered light talks in such a way that nothing bounces away from the metamaterial onto the observer’s eye. Mirin said that it this which proves the invisibility of the material and also added that, “Ideally, one should see exactly what is behind an object.”

The material should not only retransmit the color and brightness of what is behind, like squid or chameleons do, but also bend the light around, preserving the original phase information of the signal.”

Halas, one of the inventors added to the story telling that the nanocups in the embedded form were known to be the first three-dimensional nanoantennas. This special property acquired by them was due to the presence of plasmons. The plasmonic nanoparticles have electrons within them which resonate with the assistance of the electromagnetic source from the outside. This can be known to be similar to how ripples are created in a pool by the falling of water droplets. These particles absorb as well as emit electromagnetic waves including visible wavelengths and they work similar to how radio antennas work.

The nanocup ensembles have the ability to focus light which comes from any direction to a particular point. They are also known to be the best candidates for creating thermal solar power. A lot of money can be saved on machinery for those solar panels which does not have to track out sun, still can focus light onto the beam which is always said to be on the go.

“In solar cells, about 80 percent of the light passes right through the device. And there’s a huge amount of interest in making cells as thin as possible for many reasons.” Halas added up telling that all kinds of power generated from solar energy can be of great benefit.

Halas also said that the transparency of the cell directly depends on the thinning of it. “So ways in which you can divert light into the active region of the device can be very useful. That’s a direction that needs to be pursued.”

She also said that transmission of optical signals between the computer chips can be made possible by nanocup metamaterial and it can also enhance the spectroscopy and also wonderful opportunities are provided by the superlenses as well.

“We’d like to implement these into some sort of useful device,” said Halas of her team’s next steps. “We would also like to make several variations. We’re looking at the fundamental aspects of the geometry, how we can manipulate it, and how we can control it better.”

“Probably the most interesting application is something we not only haven’t thought of yet, but might not be able to conceive for quite some time.”

The paper can be found at http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/nl900208z?prevSearch=mirin&searchHistoryKey

From Technology.am