What are Metamaterials?

Metamaterials are artificially structured materials with engineered electromagnetic properties, capable of controlling various wave phenomena. In the early 2000s, metamaterials gained significant traction due to their ability to realize exotic devices, such as invisibility cloak, negative refraction, perfect lens, etc. These devices, or wave phenomena, had been deemed impossible before the emergence of the concept of metamaterials.

Image sources:

[Left] D. Schurig, et al., Science vol. 314, no. 5801, pp. 977-980 (2006).

[Middle] D. R. Smith, et al., Science vol. 305, no.5685, pp. 788-792 (2004).

[Right] N. Kundtz, et al., Nature Materials, vol. 9, no. 2, pp. 129-132 (2010).

Inspiring talks by Prof. Smith

Metasurfaces are an electrically thin layer of metamaterial scattering elements, often considered as the 2D equivalent of metamaterials. They can take the form of either waveguide-fed metasurfaces, transmissive metasurfaces, or reflective metasurfaces. Through extensive research in the last decade, it has been demonstrated that metasurfaces are promising radiative platforms with flexibility in pattern synthesis, making them appealing to various applications, including wireless communication, radar, security screening, and more.

Echodyne, Pivotal, Evolv, Kymeta, and Lumotive are prominent players in the metamaterial industry, having leveraged the metamaterial concept to develop innovative metasurface structures tailored to their respective fields of focus. Echodyne specializes in radar solutions, Pivotal specializes in beam steering repeater solutions for 5G mm-wave communication systems, Evolv specializes in security scanning systems, Kymeta specializes in beam steering antennas for satellite communication systems, and Lumotive specializes in Lidar solutions. Metacept, as a startup incubator, has close relationships with these companies and collaborated to advance metamaterial technologies.

* Commercialization efforts by others include: Metalenz, Meta Materials, Wave-Up, etc.