“Unconventional Materials and Structures for Terahertz Plasmonic Metamaterials”

http://www.ece.utah.edu/unconventional-materials-and-structures-for-terahertz-plasmonic-metamaterials/

November 13, 2014

Dr. Ajay Nahata

University of Utah
Electrical & Computer Engineering Department

When: Monday, November 17, 2014 at 3:05 p.m.
Where: Warnock 1250

Abstract

In recent years, there has been great interest in the field of plasmonics. Much of the focus has been on studying the phenomena at optical frequencies, because of the potential for a wide variety of nanophotonic device applications. Although there has been excellent progress in this area, any resulting plasmonic device technologies would need to compete with existing optical capabilities. This is not the case in the THz spectral range. Although significant advances has been made in creating THz sources and detectors, there is a nearly complete lack of other device capabilities in the THz spectral range, which severely limits the development of useful technologies in areas such as communications, computing and imaging. A significant issue is that conventional dielectric materials are highly lossy at these frequencies. In this talk, I will discuss why plasmonics is extremely well suited for THz applications and demonstrate that the breadth of materials appropriate for plasmonics is dramatically larger than at optical frequencies.

Speaker Biography

Dr. Ajay Nahata received his Bachelor’s degree from MIT and his Master’s and Ph.D. degrees from Columbia University, all in electrical engineering. He worked in industry for a total of nearly nine years, first at AlliedSignal Inc. (now Honeywell International) and later with NEC Research Institute. Since August 2003, he has been with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Utah.

His current research programs are in the areas of THz optoelectronics and nanophotonics. His research interests include ultrafast optics, nonlinear optics, nanophotonics, and, more generally, studying interesting optical phenomena and exploring potential applications.