Metamaterials are artificial materials exhibiting unique properties that are not readily available in nature. They provide a powerful tool for controlling the propagation, scattering and transmission of the electromagnetic waves by their internal structure rather than just the matter of which they are composed. The designable material parameters enable the applications of the metamaterials to various fields including cloaks, super lens, antennas, energy harvesting, and electromagnetic compatibility. However, there are still many obstacles to be cleared in the way of practical applications, such as narrow working bandwidth, bulky size, limited performance, and fabrication.We focus on the electromagnetic absorption control by metamaterials and their applications in microwave absorbing, energy harvesting, and sensing. We are currently working on (1) electromagnetic metamaterial absorbers with controllable absorption bandwidth and their absorption mechanisms, (2) real time tunable or smart metamaterials with wide working frequency, and (3) flexible/stretchable metamaterials for non-planar surfaces.

2、Micro-/Nanomotors

    Micro/nanomotors promises revolutionary changes of many fields, such as biomedicine, micro/nanoengineering, environmental monitoring and remediation and security, due to their automatically motions and capabilities of performing complex tasks. However, the practical applications are still severely limited because of the challenging issues of micro/nanomotors, such as weak driving force, low energy conversion efficiency, poor biocompatibility, primitive intelligence and simple functionality. We focus on (1) the discovery and/or fabrication of new biocompatible micro/nanomotors and propulsion mechanism, (2) the profound understanding of the communication between micro/nanomotors and that between micro/nanomotors and surrounding environments, (3) the strategies for new functionalities such as sensing, diagnosis and treatment. With the theoretical innovation and technological breakthroughs on micro/nanomotors, we target at the practical applications of micro/nanomotors.

3、Photonic Crystals and Their-Based Coloration Camouflage Composite Materials

     Photonic crystals are periodic nanostructures of high and low dielectric constants and thus able to diffract bright structural colors under illumination. Intrinsically different from the chemical coloration by pigments or bioluminescence, the structural colors are stable and durable as long as their periodical structures persist, and also tunable in the whole visible spectra when integrated with active materials. These unique characteristics promise their potential applications in many fields. Our researches focus on (1) the new strategies and mechanisms to control the basic optical properties of photonic crystals at will, such as reflection intensity, color saturation, contrast and hue, (2) the construction of new self-assembly structures to obtain angle-independent photonic crystals, (3) the practical applications based on photonic crystals including sensing, reflective-display, photonic papers, textile, anti-counterfeiting and chameleon-like optical camouflage, etc.