Hyperbolic Metamaterials: What the density of photonic states can do

Optical cavities, plasmonic structures, photonic band crystals, interfaces, as well as, generally speaking, any photonic media with spatially inhomogeneous dielectric permittivity (including metamaterials) have local densities of photonic states, which are different from that in vacuum. All these modified density of states environments are known to control both rate and angular distribution of spontaneous emission. We ask the question whether proximity to metallic and metamaterial surfaces can affect other physical phenomena of fundamental and practical importance.

We show that the same substrates and the same density of state distributions, which boost spontaneous emission, inhibit Forster energy transfer between donor and acceptor molecules doped into a thin polymeric film. This finding correlates with the fact that in dielectric media, in which the density of photonic states is related to the index of refraction n, the rate of spontaneous emission is proportional to n while the rate of the donor-acceptor energy transfer (in solid solutions with random distribution of acceptors) is proportional to n-1.5. This heuristic correspondence suggests that other classical and quantum phenomena, which in regular dielectric media depend on n, can too be controlled with custom-tailored metamaterials, plasmonic structures, and cavities.

The examples discussed in the presentation will include, besides the Forster energy transfer, the van der Waals forces (surface wetting) and chemical reactions.
Dr. Mikhail A. Noginov graduated from Moscow Institute for Physics and Technology (Moscow, Russia) with a Master of Science degree in Electronics and Automatics in 1985. In 1990 he received a Ph.D. degree in Physical-Mathematical Sciences from the General Physics Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences (Moscow, Russia).

In 1985-1991, Dr. Noginov worked as an Engineer, Junior Staff Research Scientist, and then Staff Research Scientist in the General Physics Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences. In 1991-1993, he was a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Center for Materials Science and Engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA. Between 1993 and 1997, Dr. Noginov was an Assistant Research Professor and then Associate Research Professor in the Department of Physics at Alabama A&M University, Huntsville, AL, USA. In 1997, Dr. Noginov has joined Norfolk State University where he started as a Research Associate Professor, and then, as a teaching faculty, advanced in ranks from an Assistant Professor to a Professor (Department of Physics and Center for Materials Research.)

In 2010, Dr. Noginov was named Norfolk State University Eminent Scholar 2010-2011. Dr. Noginov has published three books, six book chapters, over 100 papers in peer reviewed journals, over 100 publications in proceedings of professional societies and conference technical digests (many of them invited). Dr. Noginov is a member of OSA, SPIE, and APS. He has served as a chair and a committee member of several conferences of SPIE and OSA. He regularly serves on NSF panels and reviews papers for many professional journals. Since 2003, Dr. Noginov is a faculty advisor of the OSA student chapter at NSU.

Research interests of Dr. Noginov include Metamaterials, Nanoplasmonics, Random Lasers, Solid-State Laser Materials, and Nonlinear Optics.