Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

Metamaterials

Turning a negative into a positive

Nature Chemistry volume 4, pages 159–160 (2012)Cite this article

Subjects

Metamaterials are synthetic materials tailored with unusual properties that are not found in nature. It has now been predicted that they could be engineered with negative refractive index through the use of periodic structures via bottom-up self-assembly synthesis.

Metamaterials with negative refractive index1,2,3,4 are of great interest for applications such as superlenses (for imaging below the diffraction limit) and cloaking5. Such materials were first proposed in 1968 by Victor Veselago, who hypothesized that light will refract in the reverse direction (negatively) at the interface between a material with negative refractive index and a material with conventional refractive index6. The negative refractive index could be attained by a theoretically 'double negative' material that has negative values for both permittivity and permeability. With a negative index of refraction, propagation of the electromagnetic wave is reversed, and a resolution below the diffraction limit can be achieved.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Schematic routes to 3D co-continuous metamaterials with cubic symmetry.

References

  1. Smith, D. R., Padilla, W. J., Vier, D. C., Nemat-Nasser, S. C. & Schultz, S. Phys. Rev. Lett. 84, 4184–4187 (2000).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Shelby, R. A., Smith, D. R. & Schultz, S. Science 292, 77–79 (2001).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Liu, N. & Giessen, H. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 49, 9838–9852 (2010).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Burgos, S. P., deWaele, R., Polman, A. & Atwater, H. A. Nature Mater. 9, 407–412 (2010).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Pendry, J. B., Schurig, D. & Smith, D. R. Science 312, 1780–1782 (2006).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Veselago, V. G. Sov. Phys. Usp. 10, 509–514 (1968).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Hur, K. et al. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 50, 11985–11989 (2011).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Schoen, A. H. NASA Technical Note D-5541 (National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Washington, DC, 1970).

    Google Scholar 

  9. Radke, A., Gissibl, T., Klotzbücher, T., Braun, P. V. & Giessen, H. Adv. Mater. 23, 3018–3021 (2011).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Huo, Q. S., Margolese, D. I. & Stucky, G. D. Chem. Mater. 8, 1147–1160 (1996).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Han, Y. et al. Nature Chem. 1, 123–127 (2009).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Jackie Y. Ying is in the Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, 31 Biopolis Way, The Nanos, Singapore 138669,

    Jackie Y. Ying

Authors
  1. Jackie Y. Ying
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jackie Y. Ying.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Ying, J. Turning a negative into a positive. Nature Chem 4, 159–160 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nchem.1275

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nchem.1275

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing