How to Make Small Things Do Big Things: Exploring Engineered Disorder for Massively Scalable Metasurfaces and Metamaterials

Author: Wray, Parker Ryan

Year: 2024

Degree: Dissertation (Ph.D.)

Advisor: Atwater, Harry Albert

Committee Members: Yang, Changhuei; Faraon, Andrei; Marandi, Alireza; Atwater, Harry Albert

Option: Electrical Engineering

DOI: 10.7907/kvz3-jn93

Abstract

This work presents a collection of topics related to anomalous electromagnetic scattering, emission, and absorption states formed from random systems. The underlying motivation is to explore to what extent metasurface and metamaterial concepts could be applied at a massively large scale; by identifying emergent properties in systems that do not require careful fabrication. Emphasis is placed on exploring theoretical descriptions for systems that do not conform well to existing simpler models. Covered topics include random metasurfaces for spectral filtering and polarization invariance, random nanoparticle films for radiative cooling, broadband polarization and angle invariant absorption using random fractals, effective medium models beyond traditional assumptions, a mathematical transform to understand highly directional scattering/emission in complex systems, and optical metrology and characterization techniques for random systems.

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