Nonlocality in photonic materials and metamaterials: roadmap

Photonic technologies continue to drive the quest for new optical materials with unprecedented responses. A major frontier in this field is the exploration of nonlocal (spatially dispersive) materials, going beyond the local, wavevector-independent assumption traditionally adopted in optical material modeling. The growing interest in plasmonic, polaritonic, and quantum materials has revealed naturally occurring nonlocalities, emphasizing the need for more accurate models to predict and design their optical responses. This has major implications also for topological, nonreciprocal, and time-varying systems based on these material platforms. Beyond natural materials, artificially structured materials—metamaterials and metasurfaces—can provide even stronger and engineered nonlocal effects, emerging from long-range interactions or multipolar effects. This is a rapidly expanding area in the field of photonic metamaterials, with open frontiers yet to be explored. In metasurfaces, in particular, nonlocality engineering has emerged as a powerful tool for designing strongly wavevector-dependent responses, enabling enhanced wavefront control, spatial compression, multifunctional devices, and wave-based computing. Furthermore, nonlocality and related concepts play a critical role in defining the ultimate limits of what is possible in optics, photonics, and wave physics. This Roadmap aims to survey the most exciting developments in nonlocal photonic materials and metamaterials, highlight new opportunities and open challenges, and chart new pathways that will drive this emerging field forward—toward new scientific discoveries and technological advancements.

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Publication Details

Journal
Optical Materials Express
Published
2025-04-05
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1364/ome.559374
Citations
24
Primary Topic
Photonic and Optical Devices
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
17.53
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article

Nonlocality in photonic materials and metamaterials: roadmap

N. M. R. Peres, Andrea Alù, Emanuele Galiffi, Line Jelver et al.
24 citations
Optical Materials Express
Photonic and Optical Devices
17.53
article

Nonlocality in photonic materials and metamaterials: roadmap

N. M. R. Peres, Andrea Alù, Emanuele Galiffi, Line Jelver, Joel D. Cox, Igor V. Bondarev, Mário G. Silveirinha, Illya Tarasenko, Vladimir M. Shalaev, Francesco Monticone, J. B. Pendry, Uriel Levy, Anatoly V. Zayats, Tobias Stauber, Huatian Hu, A. J. Chaves, Thomas Christensen, Lorenz Huber, Mark L. Brongersma, G Wegner, Olivia Y. Long, Ortwin Hess, G. Gómez-Santos, Fabio Della Sala, Simone De Liberato, Jung‐Hwan Song, Samaneh Pakniyat, David A. B. Miller, Kurt Busch, Ulrich Hohenester, Wei‐Bin Yan, Antonio I. Fernández‐Domínguez, Dionisios Margetis, Martijn Wubs, Tigran V. Shahbazyan, S. Ali Hassani Gangaraj, Sergei Tretyakov, Svend‐Age Biehs, Constantin Simovski, Antton Babaze, Alexey V. Krasavin, Sergey I. Bozhevolnyi, Jacob B. Khurgin, P. André D. Gonçalves, Yu Luo, Paloma A. Huidobro, Christos Tserkezis, Cristian Ciracì, Eduardo J. C. Dias, Alexandra E. Boltasseva, Javier Aizpurua, Xuezhi Zheng, Cheng Guo, Pu Zhang, Shanhui Fan, Yi Yang, Fan Yang, Christos Argyropoulos, A. G. Borisov, Adam Overvig, M Sanchez, Asger Mortensen
article en
24 citations

Abstract

Photonic technologies continue to drive the quest for new optical materials with unprecedented responses. A major frontier in this field is the exploration of nonlocal (spatially dispersive) materials, going beyond the local, wavevector-independent assumption traditionally adopted in optical material modeling. The growing interest in plasmonic, polaritonic, and quantum materials has revealed naturally occurring nonlocalities, emphasizing the need for more accurate models to predict and design their optical responses. This has major implications also for topological, nonreciprocal, and time-varying systems based on these material platforms. Beyond natural materials, artificially structured materials—metamaterials and metasurfaces—can provide even stronger and engineered nonlocal effects, emerging from long-range interactions or multipolar effects. This is a rapidly expanding area in the field of photonic metamaterials, with open frontiers yet to be explored. In metasurfaces, in particular, nonlocality engineering has emerged as a powerful tool for designing strongly wavevector-dependent responses, enabling enhanced wavefront control, spatial compression, multifunctional devices, and wave-based computing. Furthermore, nonlocality and related concepts play a critical role in defining the ultimate limits of what is possible in optics, photonics, and wave physics. This Roadmap aims to survey the most exciting developments in nonlocal photonic materials and metamaterials, highlight new opportunities and open challenges, and chart new pathways that will drive this emerging field forward—toward new scientific discoveries and technological advancements.

Optical Materials ExpressVol. 15(7)
Instituto Tecnológico de Aeronáutica (BR), Stevens Institute of Technology (US), Iscte – Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (PT), Ikerbasque (ES), The Graduate Center, CUNY (US), North Carolina Central University (US), Pennsylvania State University (US), Vaughn College of Aeronautics and Technology (US), Johns Hopkins University (US), University of Graz (AT), National University of Singapore (SG), University of the Basque Country (ES), Nanyang Technological University (SG), City University of New York (US), University of Southern Denmark (DK), King's College London (GB), Hebrew University of Jerusalem (IL), Trinity College Dublin (IE), Cornell University (US), Purdue University West Lafayette (US), Université Paris-Saclay (FR), University of California System (US), Italian Institute of Technology (IT), Westlake University (CN), Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (DE), Shanghai Institute for Science of Science (CN), Istituto Nanoscienze (IT), Ministry of Education (RO), Instituto de Ciencia de Materiales de Madrid (ES), Instituto de Telecomunicações (PT), Institut des Sciences Moléculaires d'Orsay (FR), Institute of Nanotechnology (GB), Material Physics Center (ES), Xi'an University of Technology (CN), Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology (ES), Istituto di Fotonica e Nanotecnologie (IT), Max-Born-Institute for Nonlinear Optics and Short Pulse Spectroscopy (DE), Institute for Advanced Study (DE), International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory (PT), Center for Biomolecular Nanotechnologies (IT), Heinz Optical Engineering (United States) (US), Institute for Microelectronics and Microsystems (IT), University of Southampton (GB), Institute of Science and Technology, Imperial College London (GB), Donostia International Physics Center (ES), Huazhong University of Science and Technology (CN), Jackson State University (US), Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (ES), University of Maryland, College Park (US), University of Hong Kong (HK), Technical University of Denmark (DK), Stanford University (US), Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics (CN), Aalto University (FI), University of Minho (PT)
Openalex Percentile: Top 1%
Photonic and Optical Devices
17.53
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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