Thesis Defence: Soft Plasmomechanical Metamaterials for Sensing and Actuation
PhD: Pau Güell
Directors: Dr. Mar Álvarez, Ramón y Cajal Scientist at IMB-CNM (CSIC) and Dr. Borja Sepúlveda, CSIC Tenured Scientist at Magnetic Nanostructures Group at ICN2.
During the last decade, smart materials have emerged as an exciting trend in materials science. Its main concept consists on the reversible self-response to external stimulation by changing its own physicochemical properties. Within this scope, soft optomechanical materials are especially appealing for developing innovative sensing and actuation devices due to the wireless nature of optics, the tunable selectivity to different wavelengths, and the possibility to be combined with other types of stimuli (such as electric or magnetic fields).
The aim of this thesis is establishing the development of novel soft optomechanical metamaterials for smart sensing and actuation devices, based on the combination of plasmonic metamaterials, soft polymers, and photonic nanostructures. This approach brings together the last advances in soft actuation, plasmonic resonances and photonic phenomena to achieve unconventional optical behaviour in metamaterials. Special interest has been also put in the application of these developments into practical and real uses.
Register here for the online session.