Design of nanostructured metamaterials in METACHEM

It is my pleasure to present the publication Nanostructured Metamaterials – Exchange between experts in electromagnetics and material science. Metamaterials are one of the new discoveries of the last decade. They present exceptional properties, dominated by their geometrical structure and this publication will allow the reader to learn more about these ‘artificial’ materials and about their interesting (and yet unexploited) potential applications. The design and manufacturing of such materials has been made possible thanks to progress made in both materials science and electrical engineering. With the help of bottom-up manufacturing techniques, a large number of micrometer scale designs can now being scaled down to nanometer scale and therefore completely new solutions can be investigated. The tools needed to create metamaterials include modelling, geometry and property design, bottom-up manufacturing and structural and electron microscopy characterization at the atomic- and nano-scale. By controlling the reactivity of atoms and molecules to create inclusions and by controlling the positioning of these nano-inclusions, nanostructured metamaterials can been realised with interesting fields of applications where waves are involved, such as ICT applications and noise reduction. The 7th Framework Programme for Research (FP7), the European instrument for funding scientific research and technological development up to 2013, is targeting synergy between traditional scientific disciplines and this resulted in fostering four bottom-up manufacturing projects and a coordinated action on characterisation of metamaterials. Their total budget is EUR 20M with a FP7 contribution of EUR 15M. A workshop has been dedicated to metamaterials in December 2009 and its main outcome is presented in this publication. So often materials are the bottleneck or, positively, the enabler for technological progress resulting in novel and sustainable products made available to all citizens. Within the larger family of industrial technologies, material science and engineering show paramount potential to allow such progress with benefits for industry and the society as a whole. Metamaterials had a current market size of EUR 133 million in 2007 and are expected to grow to EUR 2.1 billion in 2013 (1), a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 26.5 %. I hope that the interdisciplinary and creative collaboration between material scientists and engineers together with ICT researchers will support this growth by allowing secure understanding and rapid progress in the innovative field of metamaterials, as this would allow exploiting their industrial (and later on, commercial) potential to the benefit of European industrial growth and the creation of jobs. Renzo Tomellini European Commission Head of Unit ‘Value-added Materials’