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.

Seeing the future from the past

Nature Photonics volume 13, pages 221–222 (2019)Cite this article

Subjects

Victor Georgievich Veselago (1929–2018), a Russian scientist from the Lebedev Physical Institute in Moscow, provided great inspiration and impetus to the field of metamaterials with his theoretical analysis of materials with a negative index of refraction.

What is undeniable is the fact that several important prior results related to metamaterials originate from Russian scientists. Notably, as early as 1945, Leonid Mandelstam (1879–1944), a leading researcher at the Lebedev Physical Institute, discussed media with oppositely directed phase and group velocities2,3, which can now be realized in the form of artificial metamaterials. Around a similar time, the former Moscow State University student and later renowned Bell Labs’ scientist Sergei Schelkunoff (1897–1992) introduced magnetic particle loops as a means of synthesizing high permeability4, similar to the split-ring resonators that became the key components of early metamaterials as the providers of an engineered magnetic response.

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

Access options

Buy article

Get time limited or full article access on ReadCube.

$32.00

Buy

All prices are NET prices.

References

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

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  2. Mandelstam, L. I. Zh. Éksp. Teor. Fiz. 15, 475–478 (1945).

  3. Mandelstam, L. I. Complete Works Vol. 5 (Akad. Nauk SSSR, Moscow, 1950).

  4. Schelkunoff, S. A. & Friis, H. T. Antennas: Theory and Practice (John Wiley, 1952).

  5. Veselago, V. G. Usp. Fiz. Nauk 92, 517–526 (1967).

  6. Veselago, V. G. Sov. Phys. Usp. 10, 504–514 (1968).

  7. Pendry, J. B. Phys. Rev. Lett. 85, 3966 (2000).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  8. Makarov, V. P., Rukhadze, A. A. & Samokhin, A. A. Plasma Phys. Rep. 36, 1129–1139 (2010).

  9. Bose, J. C. Proc. R. Soc. 63, 146–152 (1898).

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Southampton, Southampton, UK

    Nikolay I. Zheludev

  2. Nanyang Technological University Singapore, Singapore, Singapore

    Nikolay I. Zheludev

Authors
  1. Nikolay I. Zheludev
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Nikolay I. Zheludev.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Zheludev, N.I. Seeing the future from the past. Nat. Photonics 13, 221–222 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41566-019-0405-7

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41566-019-0405-7

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