Imperial pair up for metamaterial production

A Swiss company, Multiwave, is to join forces with Imperial College London researchers to improve design algorithms for the production of metamaterials.

Metamaterials are ordinary materials engineered to have properties not found in nature. An example would be glass manufactured to control how light waves passes through it — rendering small objects invisible.

Professor Richard Craster, who is leading the team at Imperial, said: “The advent of metamaterials has changed the way society thinks of materials today and opens up a plethora of options to control the propagation of waves. I am pleased to be working with Multiwave on next-generation algorithms that will be used to bring new metamaterial technologies to market.”

Multiwave develops technologies based on metamaterials by processing engineering requirements for new materials with their algorithms and software finding optimal structures. This partnership will focus on the development of algorithms to increase the capabilities of potential metamaterials in areas such as medical imaging and optics.

The algorithms will help create antennas that can improve MRI images for earlier detection of diseases and more accurate diagnosis of medical conditions. Optical filters could also be produced, to prevent eye strain from too much mobile device use or to protect from the ultraviolet rays from the sun.

Dr Tryfon Antonakakis, CEO of Multiwave had previously earned his PhD in applied mathematics under Professor Craster’s supervision. He said: “I’m glad to be working again with Imperial to bridge the gap between applied mathematics and industry. Mathematics is at the core of our software and this partnership will reveal new links between material properties and structures.”