Proceedings

EPJ B Highlight - Intelligent metamaterials behave like electrostatic chameleons

Chameleon-like behaviour.

Metashells can adapt their wave-bending behaviour based on the characteristics of the material they contain

A chameleon can flexibly change its colour to match its surroundings. And a similar phenomenon can now be seen in a new class of smart materials called metamaterials. The trouble is that these metamaterials lack the ability to respond to nearby objects due to their physical characteristics. To remedy this shortcoming, Chinese physicists have developed so-called 'metashells': hollow shells made of metamaterials and capable of carrying materials in their core. The advantage is that their physical characteristics, such as permittivity - the extent to which a material can store charge within an electrical field - change with the electromagnetic properties of the material they contain. In a recent theoretical study published in EPJ B, Liujun Xu and Jiping Huang from Fudan University in Shanghai, China, describe how they have developed an entire class of these chameleon-like metashells.

Metamaterials are known for their negative refraction index, both for electromagnetic waves and other wave phenomena like sound waves. A negative index can change the direction of incoming waves dramatically and even 'bend them away'. But the permittivity of the current metamaterials - which, together with permeability, determines their refraction index - is a static property, which means they don't adapt to their environment. The metashells can help change that.

Both physicists carefully calculated the effective properties of the metashells, and managed to make these properties equal to those of the material stored inside their core. As a result, the metashells become adaptive. The authors performed theoretical analyses, which are further validated by simulations.

These intelligent metashells could become an all-purpose material to satisfy different permittivity requirements under different conditions. The next stages will focus on experimental research, and on industrial applications.

This was our first experience of publishing with EPJ Web of Conferences. We contacted the publisher in the middle of September, just one month prior to the Conference, but everything went through smoothly. We have had published MNPS Proceedings with different publishers in the past, and would like to tell that the EPJ Web of Conferences team was probably the best, very quick, helpful and interactive. Typically, we were getting responses from EPJ Web of Conferences team within less than an hour and have had help at every production stage.
We are very thankful to Solange Guenot, Web of Conferences Publishing Editor, and Isabelle Houlbert, Web of Conferences Production Editor, for their support. These ladies are top-level professionals, who made a great contribution to the success of this issue. We are fully satisfied with the publication of the Conference Proceedings and are looking forward to further cooperation. The publication was very fast, easy and of high quality. My colleagues and I strongly recommend EPJ Web of Conferences to anyone, who is interested in quick high-quality publication of conference proceedings.

On behalf of the Organizing and Program Committees and Editorial Team of MNPS-2019, Dr. Alexey B. Nadykto, Moscow State Technological University “STANKIN”, Moscow, Russia. EPJ Web of Conferences vol. 224 (2019)

ISSN: 2100-014X (Electronic Edition)

© EDP Sciences