Achievement

“Metal-Free Optical Materials with Extreme Electric Permittivities” Most photonic metamaterials contain metallic nanoinclusions, and suffer from strong absorption loss. This hinders many dream applications of metamaterials and motivates researchers to look for alternative plasmonic materials. We have studied metal-free organic materials with extreme electric permittivities. In particular, we have shown that negative value of electric permittivity can be observed in a dye film and that the surface plasmon polariton can be propagated at a metal-dielectric interface. The estimates based on the first experimental results predict that the low-loss metal-free plasmonics is within reach. We have also demonstrated that the values of electric permittivity in dye nanoparticles can be dramatically modified with an external light. This paves the road to an active metamaterial control and plasmonic materials with gain. This work was presented at the CLEO conference, Baltimore, MD, May 2011.