Prof. Alù: Metasurface Platform for Enhanced Wireless Communications

Abstract

In this talk we review our recent progress on the opportunities enabled by metamaterials and metasurfaces for wireless communication technologies. We will discuss our recent work in the context of time modulation and spatio-temporal variations in metasurfaces, with particular attention to the tools they offer to overcome the common limitations of passive, linear, time-invariant systems. More broadly, we discuss how metasurfaces integrated with active, nonlinear and time-varying elements may disruptively advance mm-wave wireless communication systems, offering new tools for reconfigurable intelligent surfaces that can tailor the incoming spectrum, and reconfigure at will the communications channels with large flexibility. We envision new programmable multifunctional surfaces with ad-hoc communication protocols for new opportunities in wireless technologies.

Brief Biography

Andrea Alù is the Founding Director of the Photonics Initiative at the CUNY Advanced Science Research Center, and the Einstein Professor of Physics at the CUNY Graduate Center. He received his Laurea (2001) and PhD (2007) from the University of Roma Tre, Italy, and, after a postdoc at the University of Pennsylvania, he joined the faculty of the University of Texas at Austin in 2009, where he was the Temple Foundation Endowed Professor until Jan. 2018. Dr. Alù is a Fellow of NAI, AAAS, IEEE, MRS, OSA, SPIE and APS, with a broad range of interests, from applied electromagnetics to nano-optics, acoustics and condensed matter physics. He has received several scientific awards, including the 2021 Blavatnik National Award for Physical Sciences and Engineering, the 2021 Dan Maydan Prize in Nanoscience, the 2021 AAAFM Heeger Award, the 2020 IEEE Kiyo Tomiyasu Award, the Vannevar Bush Faculty Fellowship from DoD, the 2018 ICO Prize in Optics, the 2015 NSF Alan T. Waterman award, the 2013 OSA Adolph Lomb Medal, and the 2011 URSI Issac Koga Gold Medal.

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