Special Issue "Fractal Plasmonic Metamaterials: Properties and Applications"

Dear Colleagues，

Metamaterials are multifunctional systems made of structured materials on the subwavelength scale with engineered electromagnetic properties. This leads to the concept of metadevices, a logical extension of the metamaterial paradigm, where interactions are nonlinear and the response is dynamic, using systems with spatially variable elements. Generally, such metadevices can operate at low voltages, which is a competitive advantage over conventional technology exploiting bulk and expensive electro-optical crystals, often non-integrated in silicon photonics.

However, the bandwidth of such metamaterials is generally narrow due to their resonant nature, and most of them exhibit localized plasmonic modes in the infrared band. Mastering control up to the visible range is technologically a more challenging task due to the expensive and demanding fabrication of nanostructures, resulting from the need of high-resolution electron- or ion-beam lithographic techniques.

On the other hand, devices working in a broad spectral range are very important for multiband photodetection, energy conversion, on-chip sensing of multiple analytes, as well as multiplexed fluorescence and Raman detection.

In this regard, fractal plasmonic metamaterials offer the effective control and reproducibility of their optical properties by adjusting their size, shape, and position in space. The scale-invariance property of fractals is exploited to fabricate devices with a tailorable, self-similar, and multimodal spectral response. Generally, fractal plasmonic metamaterials show strongly enhanced localized electromagnetic fields from the infrared to the visible range with a hierarchical spatial distribution. Realization of engineered fractal metamaterials enables the use of nanoplasmonic platforms for applications, such as energy harvesting, light sensing, and bio/chemical detection.

I am pleased to invite you to participate to this Special Issue, which aims to offer insight into state-of-the-art studies on the properties and applications of fractal plasmonic metamaterials.

In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome.

Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:

• Aperiodic photonic crystals;

• Electromagnetism;

• Fractal geometry;

• Optics;

• Optoelectronics;

• Metamaterials;

• Multiband devices;

• Nanolithography;

• Nanophotonics;

• Plasmonics.

I look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Francesco De Nicola
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All papers will be peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Fractal and Fractional is an international peer-reviewed open access quarterly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• metamaterials
• plasmonics
• fractals
• aperiodic
• optoelectronics
• multiband
• optics
• hierarchical
• nanophotonics
• nanolithography