Abstract

The arbitrary control of electromagnetic (EM) waves is a key aim of photonic research. Conventional optical materials have limited abilities to manipulate EM waves due to their limited variation ranges of material parameters. Meta-surfaces are ultra-thin inhomogeneous meta-materials composed by artificial deep-subwavelength planar meta-atoms arranged in specific macroscopic orders, and were found to exhibit extraordinary capabilities to control EM waves leading to many fascinating phenomena such as anomalous refraction/reflection, planar-lens focusing and optical vortex generalizations. In this talk, the speaker will briefly review the recent efforts in employing meta-surfaces to control EM waves in various aspects. In particular, the speaker will describe how to realize full-range active phase modulations using graphene-based meta-surfaces and high-efficiency photonic spin-hall effects with carefully designed meta-surfaces.

About the speaker

Prof Zhou Lei received his PhD in Physics from Fudan University in 1997. He then went to the Institute for Material Research of Tohoku University for postdoctoral research. From 2000 to 2004, he was a Visiting Scholar in the Department of Physics of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. He joined the Physics Department of Fudan University in 2004 as a Professor, and became a “Xi-De" Chair Professor since 2013.

Starting from 1993, Prof Zhou has been working in the fields of magnetism, meta-materials, photonic crystals and plasmonics, and he has published over 100 papers in scientific journals including Nature Materials, Nano Letters, Physical Review Letters and Materials Today. He is the co-author of a monograph (Springer) and 3 book chapters. He has successfully held two international conferences in Shanghai, and severd as a program committee member or session chair in many top international conferences, and has been invited to give talks in many top international conferences. Prof Zhou was awarded the NSFC "Grant for Outstanding Young Scientist" in 2007 and was entitled "Chang Jiang Scholars Program" Chair Professor in 2009.

The seminar is free and open to all. Seating is on a first-come, first-served basis.

HKUST Jockey Club Institute for Advanced Study
Enquiries ias@ust.hk / 2358 5912
http://ias.ust.hk