Method for symmetry-breaking in feedback-driven self-assembly of optical metamaterials
Tuesday, November 4, 2014 - 08:00
in Physics & Chemistry
(Phys.org) —If you can uniformly break the symmetry of nanorod pairs in a colloidal solution, you're a step ahead of the game toward achieving new and exciting metamaterial properties. But traditional thermodynamic -driven colloidal assembly of these metamaterials, which are materials defined by their non-naturally-occurring properties, often result in structures with high degree of symmetries in the bulk material. In this case, the energy requirement does not allow the structure to break its symmetry.