Metasurfaces: Engineering Electromagnetic Wavefronts

Dr. Mohamed Salem
Assistant Professor Engineering Science Department, Sonoma State University

Cerent Engineering Science Complex, Salazar Hall 2009A
3:00 PM

Abstract - Metamaterials was once synonymous with ‘paradigm shift’ and ‘future technology’. In the first decade of the 21st century, metamaterials were sought to solve a large number of problems in microwaves and optics, and rapidly advance industrial, scientific, medical, and military technologies. Yet very few of the initial expectations have come to fruition. This lack of concrete applications led some critics to label metamaterials as an “unearned irony of the improperly educated postmodern crowd”. This talk sheds some light on the origin behind the initial enthusiasm and the followed disappointment in metamaterial research. The successor of bulk metamaterials, namely metasurfaces, is introduced and the underlying electromagnetic-metasurface interactions are analyzed. A detailed insight is given into metasurface engineering and several realizable applications. An overview of metasurface engineering future roadmap is laid out with pointers to some of the available exciting research and development opportunities.

Dr. Mohamed Salem is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Engineering Science at Sonoma State University. He received his Ph.D. from New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, NJ in2009. Prior to joining Sonoma State University, he was a lecturer with the University of Idaho, Moscow, ID. He has several years of postdoctoral experience with Polytechnique Montreal, Montreal, QC and King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwwal, Saudi Arabia. Dr. Salem's research focuses on electromagnetic propagation and scattering phenomena and wave-matter interaction. He is particularly interested in metasurface application in wavefront shaping and unconventional waves and beams, such as localized waves.