Department of Physics and Materials ScienceThe Optical Society of America Student Chapter of CityU

Less is More: Extreme Optics with Zero Refractive IndexProfessor Eric MazurBalkanski Professor of Physics and Applied Physics and Dean of Applied Physics, Harvard UniversityMember, Faculty of Education, Harvard Graduate School of EducationPresident, The Optical Society

Date: 27 March 2017Time: 2: 30 pm (tea reception at 2: 15 pm)Venue: Mr. & Mrs. Chan Hon Pun Lecture Theatre (LT-18), 4/F, Academic 1, City University of Hong Kong

Chair: Professor KS Chan Associate Head, Department of Physics and Materials Science

Abstract:Nanotechnology has enabled the development of nanostructured composite materials (metamaterials) with exotic optical properties not found in nature. In the most extreme case, we can create materials which support light waves that propagate with infinite phase velocity, corresponding to a refractive index of zero. This zero index can only be achieved by simultaneously controlling the electric and magnetic resonances of the nanostructure. We present an in-plane metamaterial design consisting of silicon pillar arrays, embedded within a polymer matrix and sandwiched between gold layers. Using an integrated nano-scale prism constructed of the proposed material, we demonstrate unambiguously a refractive index of zero in the optical regime. This design serves as a novel on-chip platform to explore the exotic physics of zero-index metamaterials, with applications to super-coupling, integrated quantum optics, and phase matching.

Biography:Eric Mazur is the Balkanski Professor of Physics and Applied Physics and Dean of Applied Physics at Harvard University, Member of the Faculty of Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and President of the Optical Society.

Prof. Mazur came to Harvard University in 1982 after obtaining his Ph.D. at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands. In 1984 he joined the faculty and obtained tenure six years later. Prof. Mazur has made important contributions to spectroscopy, light scattering, the interaction of ultrashort laser pulses with materials, and nanophotonics. Prof. Mazur received an Honorary Doctorate from the Ecole Polytechnique and the University of Montreal (2008) and holds Honorary Professorships from Beijing University of Technology, Beijing Normal University, and the Institute of Semiconductor Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Prof. Mazur has received numerous awards, including the Esther Hoffman Beller award from The Optical Society and the Millikan Medal from the American Association of Physics Teachers. He is a Fellow of OSA and the American Physical Society, and a Member of the Royal Academy of Sciences of the Netherlands and the Royal Holland Society of Sciences and Humanities. He has held appointments as Visiting Professor or Distinguished Lecturer at Princeton University, Vanderbilt University, the University of Leuven in Belgium, National Taiwan University in Taiwan, Carnegie Mellon University, and Hong Kong University.

Prof. Mazur has served on numerous committees and councils, including advisory and visiting committees for the National Science Foundation, and has chaired and organized national and international scientific conferences. He serves as a consultant to industry in the electronics and telecommunications industry. In 2006 he founded SiOnyx, a company that is commercializing black silicon, a new form of silicon developed in Prof. Mazur's laboratory, and he is currently serving as chair of its Scientific Advisory Board. In 2011 he founded Learning Catalytics, a company that uses data analytics to improve learning in the classroom. The company was acquired by Pearson in 2013. Prof. Mazur is Chief Academic Advisor for Turning Technologies and serves on the Scientific Advisory Panel for Allied Minds, a pre-seed investment company creating partnerships with key universities to fund corporate spin-outs in early stage technology companies.

In addition to his work in optical physics, Prof. Mazur has been very active in education. In 1990 he began developing Peer Instruction, a method for teaching large lecture classes interactively. Prof. Mazur's teaching method has developed a large following, both nationally and internationally, and has been adopted across many science disciplines. Prof. Mazur is author or co-author of close to 300 scientific publications, 23 patents, and several books, including Principles and Practice of Physics (2014), a book that presents a roundbreaking new approach to teaching introductory calculus-based physics. Prof. Mazur is a sought-after speaker on optics and on education.

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