Achievement

Over the past decade, metamaterials have demonstrated scores of breathtaking phenomena, which added new dimension to scientists’ understanding of light-matter interaction. Metamaterials with hyperbolic dispersion possess very high local densities of photonic states that enhance spontaneous emission. We show that these density of states environments inhibit Forster energy transfer between donor and acceptor molecules. This finding correlates with the fact that in dielectric media, in which the densities of photonic states and the index of refraction n are related, the rate of spontaneous emission is proportional to n and the rate of the donor-acceptor energy transfer in solid solutions is proportional to n-1. This correspondence suggests that many other phenomena, which in regular dielectric media depend on n, can too be controlled with custom-tailored densities of photonic states in metamaterials, plasmonic structures, and cavities.