The recent paper by Arrigo Calzolari and Alessandra Catellani “Hyperbolic Metamaterials with Extreme Mechanical Hardness” hits the cover of the latest issue of Advanced Optical Materials (May 5, 2021, Volume 9, Issue 9).
Arrigo Calzolari and Alessandra Catellani from CnrNano together with Marco Buongiorno Nardelli from University of North Texas and Marco Fornari from Central Michigan University, explored a large class of layered materials with hyperbolic optical activity in the near-infrared and visible range and identified a number of systems that may foster unexplored optical/mechanical properties.

Hyperbolic metamaterials are highly anisotropic optical materials that behave as metals or as dielectrics depending on the direction of propagation of light. The possibility of combining hyperbolic optical behavior and controlled mechanical hardness in a unique metastructure opens the way to new solutions for aerospace, telecom, or medical applications, where either hard or ultrasoft materials best satisfy the environmental working conditions. Based on high throughput first principles and effective medium theory calculations, Arrigo Calzolari and co-workers identifed several ultrasoft and hard hyperbolic metamaterials among more than 1800 rocksalt combinations.

Read the complete article “Hyperbolic Metamaterials with Extreme Mechanical Hardness”