Microfluidic methods for manufacturing metamaterials

The focus of this PhD is to develop a microfluidic technique for manufacturing liquid metamaterials with extraordinary properties, such as photonic band gaps (PBG) that prohibits transmission of electromagnetic (EM) waves of a certain bandwidth.

This will be achieved by harnessing the liquid rope-coiling instability at the micron-scale, within coflowing microfluidic channels, to produce electrically-conductive coils, then encapsulating these coils inside dielectric droplets and assembling the droplets into stable dispersions or 3D arrays to create soft metamaterials.

Colloidal, coil-in-droplet resonators (CIDRs) will form the building blocks of soft, liquid and wearable metamaterials.

The properties of these metamaterials will depend on the natural frequency of the unit resonators (i.e. the CIDRs) rather than the spacing between periodic unit cells (as is the case in photonic crystals).

The appointed PhD student will receive extensive training in microfabrication, microscopic imaging, chemical synthesis, image acquisition and processing, data analysis, rheology, RF measurement, and the theory of fluid dynamics, flow instabilities, wave physics and photonics.

As a member of the Physics of Fluids & Soft Matter group, they will also receive training in research dissemination (e.g., written/oral science communication) and attend regular research seminars and professional development workshops.