Ricerc@Sapienza

This project aims at the theoretical and numerical study of electromagnetic 'line waves' (LWs) and their perspective applications. These recently discovered wave objects channel the energy flow along a 1-D track and can be supported by suitable planar discontinuities of the surface impedance in artificial (metasurfaces) and natural (e.g., graphene) low-dimensional materials.
Their possible applications are abundant and potentially disruptive, yet they are largely unexplored. In flat-optics scenarios, LWs could effectively route light signals in a precise, versatile, and potentially reconfigurable fashion, while maintaining robustness in the presence of bends and possible imperfections. Moreover, they exhibit inherent chiral-coupling properties that can be of interest in quantum-computing scenarios, and very high field enhancements that can find interesting applications in nonlinear optics and chemical/biological sensing. Finally, their radiative regimes can lead to novel types of microwave and THz antennas of interest for future communication systems.
Although LWs can be viewed as the 1-D counterparts of surface waves, their theoretical and experimental study is considerably more complex, and requires a completely new arsenal of tools. Specifically, there is a crucial need for physically incisive parameterizations in order to identify suitable material platforms and operating frequencies from microwaves to optics.
The objective of the project is to provide novel approaches to theoretical and numerical modeling of LW-based devices operating at microwave and THz frequencies, including the unexplored scenarios of reconfigurable platforms and radiative regimes. The expected outcomes are important at both the fundamental-science and technological levels, as they will provide a more complete understanding of the physics underlying LWs, their range of existence, and potential impact in enabling technologies ranging from sensing to wireless communications.