PhD student Paulo Alves has been awarded one of this year’s Gulbenkian Prizes for Stimulus to Scientific Research, in the area of Physics/Advanced Materials, with his work “Ab initio nonlinear electromagnetic metamaterials”.

Paulo’s research centers on the exciting new field of electromagnetic metamaterials: artificial materials which can bend and manipulate light in extraordinary ways. These materials can be engineered to produce exotic effects, like guiding light around an object rendering it invisible, or even focusing light beyond the limits of conventional lenses, acting as a super lens.

The remarkable properties of metamaterials have attracted a great deal of scientific and technological interest. “I am interested in understanding how light behaves under very bizarre conditions found in metamaterials, like negative refraction, from a fundamental level”, says Paulo. “In particular, I would like to understand how high intensity light interacts with metamaterials, to investigate nonlinear effects in unusual conditions”.

Figure: Cherenkov emission in a negative refractive index metamaterial.

This project will be carried out at Group for Lasers and Plasmas (GoLP) in collaboration with Professor Orwtin Hess’ group, Centre for Plasmonics and Metamaterials, at the Imperial College of London.