A course of the European School on Metamaterials operated by the Metamorphose Virtual Institute will be held in conjunction with the Metamaterials'2009 Congress (17-18.09.2010). This event will be co-organized with the Karlsruhe School of Optics & Photonics of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology.

The course will present a unique opportunity for students and young researchers to get exposure to the latest advancements in the field of metamaterials and to meet the leading experts in this explosively developing field. The lectures will be delivered by key speakers of the Congress.

The topic of this two-day school is

Bringing gain to metamaterials

Confirmed lecturers:

Mikhail Noginov (Plasmonic structures with gain)

Mark Stockman (Implications of causality on metamaterial losses; The Spaser)

Costas Soukoulis (Self-consistent calculations on metamaterials with gain)

Martin McCall (Causality-based criteria must be used with care)

The school aims at advanced and/or graduate students who are already familiar with the basic concepts of metamaterials. The school addresses a current hot and partially controversial topic in the field, namely the possibility of completely compensating losses. This topic can be separated into two parts: (i) Fundamental limitations imposed by causality and (ii) issues of self-consistency when adding gain media to a metamaterial.

The format is composed of only very few lecturers and aims at stimulating lively discussions with the students rather than just being additional talks to the conference. Students will be asked to prepare statements in groups and present these in front of the audience.

Preliminary program

Friday, September 17th 2010

09:00 - 09:15: Welcome and outline of the school (Martin Wegener)

09:15 - 10:45: "Implications of causality on metamaterial losses" (Mark Stockman)

10:45 - 11:15: Coffee break

11:15 - 12:45: "Causality-based criteria must be used with care" (Martin McCall)

13:00 - 14:30: Lunch

14:30 - 15:30: Discussion in groups on the question: Can zero loss in negative-index metamaterials be accomplished or not?

15:30 - 16:00: Prepared statements by students on this question

16:00 - 16:30: Coffee break

16:30 - 18:00: "The SPASER" (Mark Stockman)

19:00 -      : Dinner

-------------------------------------------------

Saturday, September 18th 2010

10:00: Meeting for excursion to Karlsruhe castle

12:30 - 14:00: Lunch

14:00 - 15:30: "Plasmonic structures with gain" (Mikhail Noginov)

15:30 - 16:00: Coffee break

16:00 - 17:30: “Self-consistent calculations on metamaterials with gain” (Costas M. Soukoulis)

17:30 – 17:45: Concluding remarks (Martin Wegener)