Controlling light with materials, controlling materials with light

Richard Averitt

Department of Physics, Boston University

The past decade has seen enormous advances in materials and spectroscopy spanning from classical to quantum physics. On the classical front, metamaterials are artificial composites with unique electromagnetic properties that derive from their sub-wavelength structure. Metamaterials enable new ways to control light with negative refractive index and cloaking as two examples of considerable interest. Moving to the quantum realm, correlated electron materials exhibit fascinating phenomena ranging from superconductivity to metal-insulator transitions. Many of these materials exhibit colossal changes to small perturbations which includes electromagnetic excitation. This opens up exciting possibilities such as photoinduced phase transitions with a goal being to create metastable states with unique properties. I will discuss how we utilize femtosecond optical pulses and far-infrared radiation to investigate metamaterials and complex matter. This has culminated in our recent work integrating classical and quantum matter to create new electromagnetic devices and explore novel phenomena.