Should you be interested in organizing a Special Session at META 2021, contact us at contact@metaconferences.org. Sessions of similar topics may be proposed, if needed we will schedule them at different slots over the conference period.

1. See examples of sessions proposed at META 2019 here.

2. See "Call for Special Sessions" here.

SP1. "Machine learning for metamaterials and metasurfaces"

Organizer: Mohamed Bakr (McMaster University, Canada) and Willie Padilla (Duke University, USA)

Recent application of machine learning and deep learning has enabled accelerated design of metamaterial and metasurfaces, thus overcoming significant challenges with conventional numerical methods. For many metamaterial and metasurface systems, conventional optimization approaches are limited and not able to efficiently solve for a desired scattering response. The issue of finding the geometry of a metamaterial or metasurface that will give a desired spectral response – the inverse problem – is also is of keen interest and, as of yet, an unsolved problem. Research on machine learning, deep learning for accelerated metamaterial discovery and optimization, inverse neural networks, and interpretable machine learning, will be covered in the present session.

1. Machine learning and deep learning for nanoscale structured materials;
2. Forward and inverse machine learning approaches;
3. Supervised learning, unsupervised learning, and reinforcement learning;
4. Interpretable machine learning;
5. Metamaterial and metasurface discovery and optimization with machine learning.

SP2. "Structured and topological photonic fields"

Organizer: Jamal Berakdar (Martin-Luther Universität Halle-Wittenberg, Germany) 

The spatial structure of the wave fronts of electromagnetic pulses as well as the distribution of the polarization state of photonics fields can nowadays be engineered to a high precision, resulting in photonics fields that carry a well defined amount of orbital angular momentum, or fields that trigger magnetoelectric transitions in matter, as well as optical fields with specific topological nature such as optical skyrmions. This session reviews recent advances in these areas of research with emphasis on the cross links and possible future applications.

1. Beams carrying orbital angular momentum;
2. Vector beams;
3. Topological photonics;
4. Optical skyrmions;
5. Magnetoelectric photonics.

Confirmed Invited Speakers:

1. Andrei Afanasev, George Washington University, USA
2. Antonio Ambrosio, Istituto Italiano di Tec, Italy
3. Mohamed Babiker, York University, UK
4. Che Ting Chan, Hong Kong University, Hong Kong
5. Patrice Genevet, Université Côte d'Azur, France
6. Joerg Goette, York University, UK
7. Carlos Hernández-García, University of Salamanca, Spain
8. Eugene Kamenetskii, Ben-Gurion University, Isreal
9. Ibrahim Karimi, University of Ottawa, Canada
10. Koray  Köksal, Bitlis Eren Üniversitesi, Turkey
11. Ferdinand Schmidt-Kaler, Johannes Gutenberg Universität Mainz, Germany

SP3. "Metasurface for information processing"

Organizer: Jensen Li (HKUST, Hong Kong) and Xianzhong Chen (Heriot-Watt University, UK)

Metasurfaces offer a flexible and sophisticated platform to control light-matter interaction, particularly on manipulating and converting the different degrees of freedom of light, including direction, polarization and orbital angular momentum. This session aims to further explore their applications in information processing, including multiplexing/demultiplexing, storage and mode conversions.

1. Metasurface holograms;
2. Tunable/active/coding metasurfaces;
3. Mode selection and sorting;
4. Transformation optics;
5. Counterfeit and security applications.

SP4. "Parity-Time and quasi-normal modes in Photonics, Plasmonics, Acoustics"

Organizer: Anatole Lupu (C2N/Paris-Sud University, France) and Henri Benisty (Institut d'Optique Graduate School, France)

The use of new symmetry properties in Photonics, Plasmonics, Acoustics has emerged in the recent years. They exploit unusual categories of modes and states that open yet unexplored avenues. Parity-Time symmetric structures are a key example of such a class of non-Hermitian systems of renewed interest in optics and photonics (gain/loss structures) for diverse flavours of broken symmetries. Quasi-normal modes help building sound pictures of non-hermitian systems and are also an increasingly considered topic. This special session will cover theoretical and experimental progress in the exploration and functionalization of systems exhibiting this class of special-symmetry-related features in the areas of photonics, plasmonics and acoustics.

1. Non-Hermitian Photonics, Plasmonics, Metamaterials, Acoustics;
2. PT-symmetry related functionalities enabled by gain-loss engineering: theory, devices, applications;
3. Singularities, broken symmetries, topological states in non-Hermitian systems;
4. Transformation optics;
5. Studies of quasi normal modes in general Non-hermitian contexts.

Confirmed Invited Speakers:

1. Pierre Berini, University of Ottawa, Canada
2. Eva-Maria Graefe, Imperial College London, UK
3. Mercedeh Khajavikhan, CREOL, University of Central Florida, USA
4. Vasily Klimov, P.N. Lebedev Physical Institute, Russia
5. Vladimir Konotop, Lisbon University, Portugal
6. Konstantinos Makris, Univ. Crete and FORTH, Greece
7. Alejandro Manjavacas, University of New Mexico, USA
8. Egor Muljarov, Cardiff University, UK
9. Sahin Ozdemir, Pennsylvania State University, USA
10. Christophe Sauvan, Institute of Optics Graduate School, France   
    
11. Henning Schomerus, Lancaster University, UK
12. Kestutis Staliunas, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Spain
13. Andrey Sukhorukov, Australian National University, Australia
14. Jan Wiersig, Otto-von-Guericke-Universitat, Germany                                                                                   
    

SP5. "Synthesis and characterization of plasmonic nanostructures"

Organizer: Mohamed Boutinguiza Larosi and Juan Pou Saracho (University of Vigo, Spain)

Plasmonic nanomaterials are receiving special attention as object of investigation in science and nanotechnology due their unique optical, electrical, magnetic and catalytic properties obtainable when operating at nanoscale. The fast development of this area has increased the applications of plasmonic nanomaterials, as well as the new methods of nanofabrication. This session includes, but it is not limited to: the following topics:

1. Synthesis and processing of plasmonic nanomaterials;
2. Functional plasmonic nanostructures;
3. Characterization of nanomaterials;
4. Plasmonic Nanofabrication.

Confirmed Invited Speakers:

1. Guillermpo Pedro Acuna, University of Fribourg, Switzerland
2. Francesco Bisio, Universitá di Genova, Italy
3. Jan Krajczewski, University of Warsaw, Poland
4. Virginie Ponsinet, Centre de Recherche Paul Pascal, France

SP6. "Mesoscale Plasmonics, Nanophotonics and Acoustics"

Organizer: Igor V. Minin and Oleg V. Minin (Tomsk Polytechnical University, Russia)

This workshop is devoted to mesoscale structures which are large enough to support internal resonances, but at the same time small enough, so that geometrical optics cannot be applied for studying their properties (typically Mie size parameter around 10-20). In the last two decades, an explosion of research in photonics (including plasmonics and acoustics) aimed at novel optical properties of mesoscale (wavelength-scale dimensions) structures such as photonic nanojets and hooks, photonic-plasmonic near-field coupling effects for ultrasensitive sensors and tweezers, super-resolution imaging properties, etc were ovserved.

1. Photonics Jet, Photonics hook, Acoustic Jets;
2. Mesoscale particle: resonances and Superresonanses;
3. Plasmonic Mesoscale devices and appications;
4. Acoustic subwavelength focusing and mesoscale lenses;
5. New tweezers on mesoscale;
6. Mesoscale-particle based Super-resolution images;
7. Mesoscale structured light, etc.

Confirmed Invited Speakers:

1. Alexander Littlefield, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA
2. Liyang Yue, Bangor University, UK    
   

SP7. "Plasmonics for single molecule detection and manipulation"

Organizer: Denis Garoli (Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia - IIT, Italy)

1. Plasmonic nanostructures for extreme sensitivity detection;
2. Single molecule fluorescence;
3. Single molecule SERS;
4. Plasmonic nanopore;
5. Plasmonic trapping.

Confirmed Invited Speakers:

1. Matteo Ardini, University of L'Aquila, Italy
2. Andreas Dahlin, Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden
3. Jian-An Huang, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Italy
4. Sylwester Gawinkowski, Polish Academy of Sciences, Poland
5. Marzia Iarossi, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Italy
6. Nicolò Maccaferri, University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg
7. Daniel Price, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Italy
8. Alexander Shalin, ITMO University, Russia

SP8. "Structural Color for Displays and Imaging"

Organizer: Debashis Chanda (College of Optics and Photonics - CREOL, University of Central Florida, USA)

Structural color is produced through combinations of reflection, scattering and interference which eliminates color bleaching of pigmentation based absorptive color generation mechanisms. Plasmonic as well as dielectric metasurfaces/nanostructures offer the unique ability to control the propagation of light via phase/amplitude modifications on nanostructured surfaces, producing vivid structural color. Flexible, thin-film structural color holds great promise for next generation displays and prints.

1. Transmissive/reflective structural color; 
2. High contrast color; 
3. Angle independent color generation; 
4. Active and passive tunability; 
5. Bio-inspired color; 
6. Integrated devices.

SP9. "Bottom-up approaches, new fabrication routes and ENSEMBLE3"

Organizers: Dorota Pawlak (ITME, Poland) & Virginie Ponsinet (CNRS-Université de Bordeaux, France)

The session will cover all aspects of novel approaches to manufacturing of materials with special electromagnetic properties as metamaterials and plasmonic materials. The stress will be on bottom-up approach however the session aims to bring together also scientists applying novel ideas in top-down manufacturing methods. The session will include manufacturing, theory, characterization and application. The session aims to bring together material scientists, experts in electromagnetic theory and characterization as well as researchers presenting applications of the materials.

1. Bottom-up fabrication routes for nanomaterials;
2. New fabrication methods for nanophotonics;
3. Self-assembled metamaterials;
4. Disordered and non-periodic metamaterials and metasurfaces;
5. Colloidal optical nanoresonators.

Confirmed Invited Speakers:

1. Pablo Alonso, Univ. Ovidio, Spain
   
2. Alberto Alvarez Fernandez, University College London, UK
3. Joonie Choi, Samsung, Korea
   
4. Maria Farsari, IESL-FORTH, Greece
   
5. Céline Fiorini-Debuisschert, CEA Saclay France
6. Javier García de Abajo (Keynote Speaker), ICFO, Spain
7. Ortwin Hess, Imperial College, UK
   
8. Rafal Kasztelanic, Warsaw Univ., Poland   
   
9. Sang Ouk Kim, KAIST, Korea
10. Stephanie Law, University of Delaware, USA
11. Tapio Niemi, Tampere University of Technology, Finland
12. Piotr Nyga, Purdue Univ., USA
13. Matthias Pauly, University of Strasbourg, France
14. Sir John B. Pendry (Keynote Speaker), Imperial College London, UK
15. Janusz Parka, Wojskowa Akademia Techniczna, Poland
    
16. Thomas Pertsch, Univ. Jena, Germany
    
17. Concita Sibilia, Uni. Roma 1, Italy
18. Martin Wegener (Keynote Speaker), KIT, Germany
19. Pavel Yazhgur, University of Fribourg, Switzerland
20. Anastasia Zaleska, Kings College London, UK

SP10. "Local enhancement and control of light-matter interaction"

Organizers: Antonio Ambrosio (CNST@POLIMI - Fondazione Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Italy)

Local manipulation of light-matter interaction by means of nanostructuring of photonics materials is a well-established reality. One example is the physics of polaritons in some 2D materials. The session will discuss the most recent achievements about topics like:

1. Polaritons in 2D material;
2. Near-field microscopy;
3. Visible and Mid-IR metasurfaces and metamaterials;
4. Intersubband transitions;
5. Tunable nano-devices.

Confirmed Invited Speakers:

1. Alexandra Boltasseva, Purdue University, USA
2. Vincent Ginis, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium
3. Xiangping Li, Jinan University, China
4. Marco Piccardo, Fondazione Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Italy
5. Javier Martín Sánchez, University of Oviedo, Spain
6. Cesare Soci, NTU, Singapore
7. Michele Tamagnone, Harvard University, USA
8. William Wilson, Harvard university, USA

SP11. "Advanced modeling techniques for the design of metasurface devices"

Organizers: Patrice Genevet (Côte d'Azur University - CNRS, France) & Stéphane Lanteri (Côte d'Azur University - Inria, France)

The development of metasurfaces and their deployment in real world applications require new design method leading to high efficient and reliable devices, maintaining robust performances for a large number of devices. This Special Session will be the opportunity to present and discuss recent advances on theoretical modelling and practical developments of metasurface prototypes, and their impact on experimental design.

1. Modelling of metasurfaces, e.g., through thin sheet transmission conditions;
2. High order methods based on finite difference/finite element/boundary element discretization;
3. Reduced order modeling methods;
4. Modeling methods based on quasi-normal mode expansion;
5. Solution strategies for the characterization of large-scale devices;
6. Optimization and inverse design methodologies, e.g., with gradient-based, evolutionary or machine learning algorithms;
7. Applications of advanced numerical methodologies to the design of metasurfaces.

Confirmed Invited Speakers:

1. Guillermo Andres Angeris, Stanford University, USA
2. Felix Binkowski, Zuse Institute Berlin, Germany
3. Sawyer Campbell, Penn State University, USA
4. Philippe Lalanne, Institut d'Optique d'Aquitaine, France
5. Alejandro Rodriguez, Princeton University, USA
6. Philippe Tassin, Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden
7. Zongfu Yu, Universty of Wisconsin, USA

SP12. "Thermal Plasmonics and Metamaterials for Environment and Energy Application"

Organizers: Junichi Takahara (Osaka University, Japan) & Kotaro Kajikawa (Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan)

Recent progress of nanophotonics enables efficient mutual conversion between light (photon) and heat (phonon). The session focuses on advanced studies on thermal plasmonics and optical metamaterials for environment and energy application. The topic includes thermal plasmonics, refractory plasmonics, metamaterial-based perfect absorbers and emitters, thermal radiation control in near/far field, advanced heat transfer devices, and thermophotovoltaic systems.

1. Thermal plasmonics and refractory plasmonics;
2. Thermal radiation/absorption control by metamaterial/metasurface;
3. Thermal-optical multiphysics simulation;
4. Thermo photovoltaic devices and systems;
5. Radiative cooling, etc.

Confirmed Invited Speakers:

1. Akira Baba, Niigata University, Japan
2. Kuo-Ping Chen, Naional Chiao Tung University, Taiwan
3. Satoshi Ishii, NIMS, Japan
4. Kentaro Iwami, Tokyo Agricultural University, Japan
5. Kotaro Kajikawa, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan
6. Yoshiaki Kanamori, Tohoku University, Japan
7. Osamu Takayama, Technical University of Denmark, Denmark

SP13. "Light-matter interactions in new materials and meta-architectures"

Organizers: Nicolò Maccaferri (University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg), Vincenzo Caligiuri (Unical and Italian Institute of Technology, Italy) & Mario Miscuglio (George Washington University, USA)

Current electronics paradigms are hitting the limitations marked by the end of the Moore’s law era. Moreover, the massive production of plastic components for high-end electronics and photonics poses a serious issue on the environmental fingerprint these technologies are leaving. The design of new architectures and the synthesis of new, environmental friendly materials which leverage on enhanced and tunable light-matter interactions with high efficiency in terms of speed and energy can play a main role in suppressing the major bottlenecks in a plethora of applications including intelligent and quantum computing, communication, data storage and cognitive sensing. The focus of this session will be on dynamically tunable and biodegradable novel materials for photonics and plasmonics, aiming to efficiently mold the phase, intensity, polarization and momentum of light from the nanoscale to the mesoscale level.

1. Nonlinear materials (ENZ, RSA, SA);
2. Volatile and Nonvolatile Phase transition materials, high index dielectrics;
3. Photonic modulators (Carrier based, Stark, Pockels, Kerr, bistable and self-linearized modulators);
4. Dynamic Metasurfaces for control of the Orbital Angular Momentum;
5. Dynamic metasurfaces with electrical, thermal, chemical, optomechanical, magnetic and others external controls;
6. Magnetophotonics, magnetoplasmonics and acoustoplasmonics at the nanoscale;
7. Nanophotonics and nanoplasmonics;
8. Optical metamaterials and nanoantennas for spintronics;
9. Nonlinear dynamic and tunable metasurfaces;
10. Bio-inspired and green photonics, plasmonics and metamaterials;
11. Epsilon-Near-Zero and Non-Hermitian photonic and plasmonic architectures;
12. Hyperbolic Metamaterials for biological and super high-resolution applications.

Confirmed Invited Speakers:

1. Alessandro Alabastri, Rice University, USA
2. Edoardo Albisetti, Politecnico di Milano, Italy
3. Viktoriia Babicheva, University of New Mexico, USA
4. Andrea Baldi, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands
5. Humeyra Caglayan, University of Tampere, Finland
6. Andrea Di Falco, University of St Andrews, UK
7. Alexandre Dmitriev, University of Gothenburg, Sweden
8. Nasim M. Estakhri, Chapman University, USA
9. Marina C. Giordano, University of Genova, Italy
10. Gervasi Herranz, ICMAB, Spain
    
11. Anthony Hoffman, Notredame University, USA
12. Patrick Huber, Hamburg University of Technology, Germany
13. Paloma A. Huidobro, Instituto de Telecomunicações, Insituto Superior Técnico - University of Lisbon, Portugal
14. Francesca Intonti, University of Florence, Italy
15. Deep Jariwala (Keynote Speaker), University of Pennsylvania, USA
16. Magnus Jonsson, Linköping University, Sweden
17. Nikolaos Kalfagiannis, Nottingham Trent University, UK
18. Mehdi Keshavartz-Hedayati, Durham University, UK
19. Sejeong Kim, University of Melbourne, Australia
20. Roman Krahne, Italian Institute of Technology, Italy
21. Marina Leite, University of California, USA
22. Lorenzo Maserati, Italian Institute of Technology, Italy
23. Sophie Meuret, CNRS-CEMES, France
    
24. Thomas Nuytten, IMEC, Belgium
25. Georgia Papadakis, ICFO, Spain
26. Michela F. Picardi, King's College London, UK
27. Francesco Pineider, University of Pisa, Italy
28. Lisa Poulikakos, University of California, USA
29. Ilya Razdolski, University of Bialystok, Poland
    
30. Anna Semisalova, Duisburg Essen University, Germany
31. Giuseppe Strangi, Case Western Reserve University, USA
32. Giulia Tagliabue, EPFL, Switzerland
33. Jorik van de Groep, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands
34. Attilio Zilli, Politecnico di Milano, Italy
35. Irina Zubritskaya, University of Gothenburg, Sweden

SP14. "Metasurfaces and 2D Metamaterials in microwave region"

Organizers: Badreddine Ratni (Université Paris Nanterre, France) & Shah Nawaz Burokur (Université Paris Nanterre, France)

Ultrathin periodic structures known as metasurfaces have recently attract great interest due to their ability to manipulate electromagnetic waves. Since, theoretical and practical applications have been achieved, including metalenses, generation of vortex beams, holograms, polarization control and invisibility cloaking. This session aims to cover recent advances on the design of metasurfaces and related applications in microwave region.

1. Metasurfaces with novel properties in microwave region;
2. Active and/or tunable metasurfaces;
3. Wavefront manipulation based on metasurfaces;
4. Metalenses and meta-mirrors;
5. Metasurface-based antennas and absorbers.

Confirmed Invited Speakers:

1. Karim Achouri, EPFL, Switzerland
2. Xumin Ding, HIT, China
3. Oskar Zetterstrom, KTH, Sweden
4. Kuang Zhang, HIT, China

SP15. "Plasmonic Nanomaterials for Bio-diagnostics, Environmental Monitoring and Food Safety"

Organizers:  Lucia Petti (Institute of Applied Sciences and Intelligent Systems - ISASI, CNR, Italy)  

The optical biosensors integrated with the new technologies in molecular biology, microfluidics, and nanomaterials have applications in agricultural production, food processing, clinical care, and environment for rapid, specific, sensitive, inexpensive, in-field, online, and/or real-time detection as well as monitoring of pesticides, antibiotics, pathogens, toxins, proteins, microbes, plants, animals, foods, soil, air, and water. The current trends and challenges for nanomaterials and nanobiosensing for the various applications are the focus of this session, including importance in areas of cancer diagnostics, detection of pathogenic organisms, food safety, environmental measurements, and clinical applications.

1. Functionalized plasmonic nanostructures;
2. Recent Developments for Plasmonics for Enhanced SERS Sensing;
3. Promising aperiodic and quasi-crystal nanoMaterials for Biosensing;
4. LSPR biosensing;
5. Plasmonic metamaterials and metasurfaces;
6. Diagnostic systems based on Metamaterials.

Confirmed Invited Speakers:

1. Luca De Stefano, Institute of Applied Sciences and Intelligent Systems - ISASI, Italy
2. Emanuela Esposito, Institute of Applied Sciences and Intelligent Systems - ISASI, Italy
3. Wolfgang Fritzsche, Leibniz Institute of Photonic Technology (IPHT), Germany
4. Giuseppe Nenna, ENEA Portici Research Center, Italy
5. Filippo Pisano, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Italy
6. Massimo Rippa, Institute of Applied Sciences and Intelligent Systems - ISASI, Italy
7. Antonio Sasso, Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II, Italy
8. Duncan Sutherland, iNANO Center - Aarhus University, Denmark

SP16. "Non-Hermitian Photonics: From Plasmonics, and Metamaterials, to Topological and Quantum systems"

Organizers: Konstantinos Makris (University of Crete, Greece), Manas Kulkarni (Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, India),  Ramy El-Ganainy (Michigan Technological University, USA) & Sahin Ozdemir (Pennsylvania State University, USA)

Exceptional points, non-orthogonal eigenmodes, PT-symmetric systems and many other general notions and concepts of Non-Hermitian physics have attracted a lot of attention lately. Such an interest was initially driven by PT-symmetric Optics and non Hermitian Photonics and now has led to an amazingly high number of ground-breaking experiments with novel applications. From single mode PT-lasers, ultrasensitive microcavity sensors, optical isolators, unidirectional invisibility to broadband wireless power transfer, PTmetamaterials, topological lasers and quantum non-Hermitian systems, this new research field proves that the synergy of gain and loss distributions can be a different way for unprecedented control over light propagation and emission. This session will focus on the most recent theoretical and experimental advances in the physics of non-Hermitian complex systems and their potential applications.

1. Non-Hermitian photonics, plasmonics and metamaterials;
2. Non-Hermitian Topological Photonics and Lasers;
3. Non-Hermitian quantum systems;
4. Wave propagation in disordered non-Hermitian complex media;
5. Exceptional points in optical and photonic systems and applications;
6. Interplay Nonlinearity and Non-Hermiticity;
7. Novel fabrication methods for non-Hermitian photonic structures.

SP17. "Plasmonics: Fundamentals and Applications"

Organizers: Hong Wei (Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China)  

The excitation of surface plasmons in metal nanostructures enables manipulating light beyond the diffraction limit, which can be utilized for enhancing and tailoring light-matter interactions and developing ultra-compact high-performance nanophotonic devices for various applications. This session will cover recent advances in both the fundamentals and the applications of plasmonics.

1. Plasmon-assisted processes: energy transfer, photon entanglement, hot carriers, nonlinear effects, optical forces, and spectroscopy (Raman, fluorescence, absorption, etc);
2. Plasmon-exciton coupling, plasmon-mediated radiation of nanoemitters;
3. Plasmonic nanogaps, plasmon coupling in composite nanostructures;
4. Plasmonic nanocircuits, active and passive plasmonic components: waveguide, nanolaser, single-photon source, router, splitter, switch, modulator, amplifier, logic gates, coupler, detector, etc;
5. Fundamentals for manipulating light at nanometer scale, quantum plasmonics, plasmonic spin-orbit interactions;
6. Plasmonic nanoantennas, sensing, and imaging;
7. Plasmochemistry;
8. Plasmonic metamaterials and metasurfaces;
9. Advanced nanofabrication and characterization techniques;
10. New materials for plasmonics and nanophotonics.

Confirmed Invited Speakers:

1. Antonio Fernández-Domínguez, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Spain
2. Gilad Haran, Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel
3. Zhixiang Huang, Anhui University, China
4. Thomas Klar, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria
5. Tobias König, Technische Universität Dresden, Germany
6. Zhipeng Li, Capital Normal University, China
7. Ning Liu, University of Limerick, Ireland
8. Ruwen Peng, Nanjing University, China
9. Pavle Radovanovic, University of Waterloo, Canada
10. Junichi Takahara, Osaka University, Japan
11. Prabhat Verma, Osaka University, Japan
12. Jianfang Wang, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, China
13. Wei Zhang, Institute of Applied Physics and Computational Mathematics, China

SP18. "Exotic Meta-media – Time-dependent, Nonlocal and Other Novel Responses"

Organizer: Martin McCall (Imperial College London, UK), Jonathan Gratus (Lancaster University, UK) & Paul Kinsler (Imperial College London, UK)

New conceptual advances in metamaterials have been energised in recent years as focus has shifted towards temporal control. This session will explore a range of radical new directions that become possible once the accepted tenets of conventional constitutive relations are supplanted. Our vision is to benefit the community by exposing new directions that challenge conventional thinking in electromagnetism and metamaterials.

1. Time boundaries and time crystals;
2. Beyond conventional electromagnetic responses;
3. Spatio-temporal Interfaces and boundaries;
4. Spatial dispersion with non-linearities and/or non-reciprocity;
5. Spacetime transformation optics and inhomogeneities;
6. Spatial dispersion with inhomogeneity/defects/boundaries;
7. Homogenization with spatial dispersion;
8. Controversies in electromagnetism: lessons from metamaterials.

SP19. "Novel Topological Photonic Materials"

Organizer: Matthias Saba (University of Fribourg, Switzerland) & Sang Soon Oh (Cardiff University, UK) 

Early research on topological photonics focused on time-reversal (reciprocity) symmetry breaking in well-known simple structures such as honeycomb or square lattices and has successfully demonstrated photonic counterparts of topological effects in condensed matter physics such as the quantum Hall effect. As topological photonic effects become diverse for example Weyl points, optical quantum spin and valley Hall effects, high-order topological insulators and synthetic dimensions, new theoretical and numerical approaches to understand the physics have been proposed. This session will focus on theoretical, numerical studies of new types of photonic topological insulators based on dielectric and plasmonic materials. Works on experimental demonstrations of the new topological concept are also invited.

1. Reciprocal topological materials;
2. Topological effects in hidden dimensions;
3. Topological metamaterials;
4. Plasmonic and magnetic topological materials;
5. Topological lasers.

Confirmed Invited Speakers:

1. Minkyung Kim, Pohang University of Science and Technology, South Korea
   
2. Masaya Notomi, NTT, Japan
3. Haedong Park, Cardiff University, UK
4. Matthew Proctor, Imperial College London, UK
5. Wenhui Wang, Singapore University of Technology and Design, Singapore
6. Ruo-Yang Zhang, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong

SP20. "Metamaterial enabled new devices and applications"

Organizer: Weiren Zhu & Ciyuan Qiu (Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China) & Fajun Xiao (Northwestern Polytechnical University, China)

Metamaterials provide a unique pathway to generate, guide, modulate and detect electromagnetic waves by having structural features that are significantly smaller than the operation wavelength. The development of metamaterials enables intriguing applications ranged from wavefront manipulation, imaging with sub-wavelength resolution, invisibility cloaks, new concept antennas, data processing, and highly flexible sensing and modulation. In this special session, we invite researchers to contribute presentations that will stimulate the continuing efforts on the understanding of metamaterials and exploring their applications. Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

1. Novel designs for metamaterials/metasurfaces;
2. Metamaterials/metasurfaces for imaging and hologram;
3. Graphene metamaterials and devices;
4. Metamaterials/metasurfaces for antennas and RF devices.

SP21. "Advances in Metamaterials"

Organizer: Jeong Weon Wu (Ewha W. University, Korea), Bumki Min (KAIST, Korea) & Jonghwa Shin (KAIST, Korea)

Wavefront engineering has been a major focus of metamaterial resear! ch by des ign of phase, amplitude and polarization of optial waves in passive way. However, the control of these optical parameters in active way received much attention in the community and enables to implement functionality in metamaterials. This session covers recent advances on metamatetrials mainly including, but not limited to, active, tunable, and nonlinear functionality in spectral as well as time domains.

1. Active metamaterials;
2. Tunable metamaterials;
3. Epsilon-near-zero metamaterials;
4. Time metamaterials;
5. Nonlinear metamaterials.

SP22. "Organic and Perovskite Optoelectronics"

Organizer: Erik Lotfi (American University of Bahrain, Bahrain) 

Perovskites have paved the way to next-generation optoelectronic devices with excellent performance. Significant research progress has been made to tackle challenges such as their stability in humid environments, phase transitions, hysteresis, inherent toxicity, and high costs of materials. Even though these issues remain mostly unsolved, the great tunability of perovskite structures and compositions is promising for future technological developments. This session will cover the latest advances in perovskite fabrication and corresponding optical properties. In addition, recent applications in solar cells, light-emitting diodes, and micro-/nanolasing using all-inorganic, all-organic, and hybrid perovskites are highlighted.

1. Light-emission from Organic and Perovskite Nanostructures;
2. Application of 2-D Materials in Organic and Perovskite Solar Cells;
3. Interface Engineering in Perovskite Materials;
4. Light-emitting Diodes Based on Perovskite Nanocrystals.

Confirmed Invited Speakers:

1. Wallace C.H. Choy, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
2. Hongxing Dong, Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, China
3. Run Long, Beijing Normal University, China
4. Jianjun Tian, University of Science and Technology Beijing, China
5. Aung Ko Ko Kyaw, Southern University of Science and Technology, China

SP23. "Topology in photonic crystals, metamaterials, and metasurfaces: physics and design"

Organizers: Yang Li and Benfeng Bai (Tsinghua University, China) 

Topology—the mathematics about conserved characteristics under continuous deformation—has been widely adopted by the photonic community to create interfaces supporting novel states of light and to design various photonic structures inversely. The former field, topological photonics, explores many exotic physical phenomena, such as robust unidirectional propagation of light, with potential applications. The latter inverse-design tool, topology optimization, enables many unprecedented photonic properties and functional devices, transforming the design methodology from intuition-based methods to performance-oriented approaches. This session will cover both the novel physics provided by topological photonics and metastructures designed by topology optimization.

Topics:

1. Topological photonics;
2. Photonic Dirac cone and its corresponding zero-index medium;
3. ENZ, MNZ, and EMNZ medium: physics and applications;
4. Inverse design in photonics: algorithms and applications;
5. Photonic devices and systems for machine learning.

Confirmed Invited Speakers:

1. Lei Bi, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, China
2. Qin Chen, Jinnan University, China
3. Yuntian Chen, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, China
4. Rasmus Christiansen, Technical University of Denmark, Denmark
5. Zin Lin, MIT, USA
6. Renmin Ma, Peking University, China
7. Owen Miller, Yale University, USA
8. Sean Molesky, Princeton University, USA
9. Chao Peng, Peking University, China
10. Lei Shi, Fudan University, China
11. Yi Xu, Jinnan University, China

SP24. "Integrated lithium-niobate photonics: structures, devices, systems and applications"

Organizers: Xianfeng Chen (Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China) and Yang Li (Tsinghua University, China) 

Single crystal lithium-niobate film’s wide transparent window, high refractive index, and high second-order nonlinearity makes lithium-niobate on insulator (LNOI) an ideal material platform for integrated photonics. The fast development of fabrication techniques for LNOI enables ridge waveguides and structures with high index contrast and flexibility, enabling the integration of various structures, devices and systems onto a LNOI chip. This session will focus on the novel physics, methods, and applications that LNOI and ridge structures bring to the community of integrated lithium-niobate photonics.

Topics:

1. LNOI waveguide, resonant cavity, and periodically poled lithium niobate (PPLN);
2. LNOI-based electro-optic modulator, optical frequency comb;
3. Applications of integrated LNOI devices in optical communications, nonlinear optics, quantum optics, microwave photonics, metrology, and optical computing.

Confirmed Invited Speakers:

1. Katia Gallo, KTH, Sweden
2. Zhenzhong Hao, Nankai University, China
3. Hui Hu, Shandong University, China
4. Shijie Liu, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China
5. Cheng Wang, City University of Hong Kong, China

SP25. "Opto-mechanical metasurfaces and metamaterials"

Organizers: Dibakar Roy Chowdhury , Jayasri Dontabhaktuni & Harshavardhan Kalathur (Mahindra Ecole Centrale, India) 

Optical control of nano- and micro scale particles is paramount for development of next generation lab-on-chip optofluidic and sensing applications. It is possible to harness mechanical forces from optical forces and vice versa in nanophotonic devices using metasurfaces and metamaterials. This session covers the recent findings on fundamental aspects and applications of opto-mechanical metasurfaces and metamaterials.

Topics:

1. Flexible metamaterials;
2. Polarization induced chiral metamaterials;
3. Reconfigurable and active metamaterials;
4. Nano-lattices;
5. Non-linear dielectric metamaterials;
6. Acoustic Metamaterials.

Confirmed Invited Speakers:

1. Abul Azad, Los Alamos National Laboratory, USA
2. Jennifer Choy, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA
3. Naresh Emani, IIT Hyderabad, India
4. Shriganesh Prabhu, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, India
5. Achanta Venu Gopal, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, India
6. Withawat Withayachumnankul, University of Adelaide, Australia

SP26. "Fine structure metafilms for controls of light and electromagnetic waves"

Organizers: Junpeng Guo (University of Alabama in Huntsville, USA) 

The session covers the emerging topic of fine structure optical films and devices. The subjects include:

Topics:

1. Optical properties of ultra-thin optical films (1~10 nanometer scale thickness);
2. Plasmon optical resonance nanostructure optical filters such as guided mode resonance filters;
3. Optical devices with nanostructure metafilms;
4. Nonlinear optical metafilms.

SP27. "Quantum metamaterials"

Organizers: Alexandre Zagoskin (Loughborough University, UK), Sergey Saveliev (Loughborough University, UK), Artur Sowa (University of Saskatchewan, Canada), Didier Felbacq (Université de Montpellier, France) and Emmanuel Rousseau (Université de Montpellier, France)

The development of quantum technologies since 2000 made possible the realization of quantum metamaterials – controllable arrays of artificial atoms, which maintain quantum coherence for the duration of signal transition. This special session reviews the current state of theoretical and experimental investigation of these artificial media and their prospective applications.

Topics:

1. Quantum metamaterials in optical and microwave domain;
2. Applications to quantum sensing and imaging;
3. Quantum metamaterials for quantum simulations and quantum computing;
4. Superconducting quantum metamaterials;
5. Signal propagation in quantum metamaterials;
6. Collective effects in quantum metamaterials;
7. Mathematical methods for quantum metamaterials.

Confirmed Invited Speakers:

1. Andreas Buchleitner, Freiburg University, Germany
   
2. Nicolas Roch, Institut Néel, France