超材料技术及其应用展望

Metamaterial Technology and Its Application Prospects

超材料是一类利用人工结构作为功能单元构筑的新型材料,可实现自然材料无法获得的新性能,得到了世界各国的高度重视,被美国国防部列为六大颠覆性技术之一。本文从工程应用出发对超材料技术的形成和发展做了简单评述,总结了过去一些年超材料在几个典型领域,如隐身、电子元器件及机械减震系统中取得的若干重要突破,预测了可能导致颠覆性技术的几个方向,如超材料透镜技术、超材料全光调控技术,以及超材料与常规材料的融合等,并对超材料技术未来发展的难点和战略思路提出了建议。

Metamaterials are artificial materials that can achieve properties that do not occur naturally from their artificial functional units.The metamaterial technology has attracted much attention in many countries.It was listed as one of the six major disruptive technologies by the Department of Defense of the United States.In this paper,the development of metamaterial technology is briefly reviewed from the perspective of engineering application.A few major breakthroughs,such as invisible cloak,metamaterial electronic components,and mechanical metamaterials are summarized.Several promising applications that may lead to disruptive technologies,such as superlens,metamaterial all-optical switching,and the merging of metamaterials and conventional materials,are predicted.Strategic suggestions on the development of metamaterial technology are proposed.