Community News - 3D isotropic metamaterials

Posted on October 30, 2014

A new fabrication process has been described in Advanced Optical Materials that combines both top-down and bottom-up (self-assembly) steps, resulting in a highly symmetric structure that holds promise for the fabrication of isotropic metamaterials. Many metamaterials have some degree of anisotropy, and fabrication methods can sometime introduce additional anisotropy. 

The top-down method uses electron beam lithography, whilst the bottom-up method relies on a self-folding mechanism caused by the intrinsic stress of metals, called the "metal-stress driven self-folding method."