Maxwell’s great theory of 1862, setting out the interplay and dynamics of electric and magnetic fields, made the remarkable prediction, subsequently verified experimentally, that light is electromagnetic radiation. Maxwell’s theory therefore lies at the heart of all Photonic Science, from lasers to waveguides, or from telescopes to plasmonics.
Our focus in the EM theory group is in understanding the propagation of light in complex media where the vacuum fields and are related in some non-trivial way to induced excitation fields. Despite being over 150 years old, Maxwell’s theory still provides exciting research areas, with more surprises yet to come!
We are especially interested in two sub-areas:
Chiral media – how both Nature and Scientists provide complex media that can distinguish right and left circularly polarized light
Transformation Optics – a design tool that can be used to create a medium capable of reproducing any deformation of the electromagnetic field. Celebrated examples include cloaking objects in space, and events in time.