Professor Shuang Zhang received BS in Physics from Jilin University, Changchun, China, in 1993, MS.  in Physics from Northeastern University, Boston, MA, in 1999, and  Ph.D in Electrical Engineering from the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, in 2005.

From December 2005 to August 2006, he was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and from August 2006 to March 2010, he was first a Postdoctoral Research Fellow and later an Assistant Research Engineer at the University of California Berkeley. In March 2010, he took the position of Reader in the School of Physics & Astronomy, University of Birmingham, and became a professor in 2013.

Professor Zhang is the recipient of IUPAP (International Union of Pure and Applied Physics) Young Scientist Prize in Optics, 2010 for his research on optical metamaterials.

Professor Zhang's recent work on macroscopic invisibility cloaking of visible light was selected as "top 10 breakthroughs for 2010" by Physics World, "top 100 stories in 2011" by Discover Magazine, and received numerous media coverage including BBC News, Telegraph, Channel 4, ITV, Guardian, Fox News, USA Today, MSNBC.

* Year 3 Photonics Lab

* Midlands Physics Alliance (MPAGS) postgraduate module "Nanophotonics and Metamaterials"

Supervision of the following research PhDs in Metamaterials and Plasmonics

Mark Lawrence

Mitchell Kenney

Lingling Huang

Research Themes

• Optical metamaterials 
• Transformation Optics and Invisibility
• Plasmonics 
• Nonlinear Optics
• Super-resolution imaging 
• Opto-electronics

Research Activity

Professor Zhang’s research has centred on the development of plasmonic devices and optical metamaterials whose electromagnetic properties cannot be obtained from nature materials.  His contributions to this field include the design and demonstration of the first bulk optical negative-index metamaterials— fishnet metamaterial, the first mid-infrared magnetic metamaterials and the first terahertz chiral negative index metamaterials, and the first optical invisibility cloak of macroscopic size.

He has also been involved in the development of optoelectronic devices, such as semiconductor distributed feedback lasers, infrared single photon detectorsand plasmonic enhanced infrared detectors.

Professor Zhang’s current research focuses on the integration of optoelectronics, plasmonics and metamaterials to achieve the active control of the nanophotonic devices, and to investigate new functional photonic materials with exotic optical properties and applications.

Programme co-chair, IEEE Nano, 2012 (Birmingham)

Symposium organizer, MRS, 2013 (San Francisco)

subcommittee member, CLEO/QELS

subcommittee member, Fronter in Optics

Referee for journals including Nature, Science, Nature Photonics, Nature Communications, Phys. Rev. Lett., Nano Lett., Phys. Rev. B, Appl. Phys. Lett., Opt Lett., Opt. Exp.

Selected publications:

Lingling Huang, Xianzhong Chen, Benfeng Bai, Qiaofeng Tan, Guofan Jin, Thomas Zentgraf & Shuang Zhang, "Helicity Dependent Directional Surface Plasmon Polariton Excitation Using a Metasurface with Interfacial Phase Discontinuity", Nature - Light: Science & Applications, 2, e70 (2013)  http://www.nature.com/lsa/journal/v2/n3/full/lsa201326a.html

X. Chen, L. Huang, H. Mühlenbernd, G. X. Li, B. Bai, Q. Tan, G. Jin, C. W. Qiu, S. Zhang, and T. Zentgraf, “Dual-polarity plasmonic metalens for visible light”, Nature Communications, 3, 1198 (2012). http://www.nature.com/ncomms/journal/v3/n11/full/ncomms2207.html

S. Zhang, Z Ye, Y Wang, Y S Park, G Bartal, M Mrejen, X Yin & X Zhang, "Anti-Hermitian Plasmon Coupling of an Array of Gold Thin-Film Antennas for Controlling Light at the Nanoscale",  Physical Review Letters, 109, 193902 (2012) http://prl.aps.org/abstract/PRL/v109/i19/e193902

L. Huang , X. Chen , H. Mühlenbernd , G. Li , B. Bai , Q. Tan , G. Jin , T. Zentgraf , and S. Zhang, "Dispersionless Phase Discontinuities for Controlling Light Propagation", Nano Letters, 12, 5750 (2012) http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/nl303031j

J Gu, R Singh, X Liu, X. Q. Zhang, Y Ma , S Zhang, S Maier, Z Tian, A Azad, H T Chen, A Taylor, J Han, W. L. Zhang, "Active control of electromagnetically-induced transparency analogue in terahertz metamaterials", Nature Communications, 3, 1151 (2012). http://www.nature.com/ncomms/journal/v3/n10/full/ncomms2153.html

S. Zhang, J. F. Zhou, Y. S. Park, J. Rho, R. Singh, S. Nam, A. Azad, H. T. Chen, X. B. Yin, A. J. Taylor & X. Zhang, "Photo-induced Handedness Switching in Terahertz Chiral-Molecules", Nature Communications, 3, 942 (2012) http://www.nature.com/ncomms/journal/v3/n7/full/ncomms1908.html?WT.ec_id=NCOMMS-20120710

D. C. Liang, J. Q. Gu, J. G. Han, Y. M. Yang, S. Zhang & W. L. Zhang, "Robust Large Dimension Terahertz Cloaking", Advanced Materials, 24, 916 (2012) http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/adma.201103890/abstract

S Palomba , S. Zhang , Y. S. Park , G. Bartal ,X. B. Yin & X. Zhang, "Optical Negative Refraction by Four-wave Mixing in Thin Metallic Nanostructures", Nature Materials, 11, 34 (2012) http://www.nature.com/nmat/journal/v11/n1/full/nmat3148.html

S. Zhang, Y. Xiong, G. Bartal, X. Yin & X. Zhang, "Magnetized plasma for reconfigurable subdiffraction imaging", Phys. Rev. Lett., 106, 243901 (2011)  http://prl.aps.org/abstract/PRL/v106/i24/e243901

X. Chen, Y. Luo, J. Zhang, K. Jiang, J. B. Pendry and S. Zhang, “Macroscopic Invisibility Cloaking for Visible Light”, Nature Communications, 2, 176 (2011) http://www.nature.com/ncomms/journal/v2/n2/full/ncomms1176.html

CW Chang, M Liu, S Nam, S Zhang, Y Liu, G Bartal, and X Zhang, “Optical Mobius Symmetry in Metamaterials”, Phys. Rev. Lett., 105, 235501 (2010) http://prl.aps.org/abstract/PRL/v105/i23/e235501

D A Dentcho, S Zhang and X Zhang, “Mimicking Celestial Mechanics in Metamaterials”, Nature Physics. 5, 687 (2009) http://www.nature.com/nphys/journal/v5/n9/abs/nphys1338.html

S Zhang, P Park, J Li, X C Lu, W L Zhang and X Zhang, “Negative Refractive Index in Chiral Metamaterials” Phys. Rev. Lett. 102, 023901 (2009) http://prl.aps.org/abstract/PRL/v102/i2/e023901

A Ishikawa, S Zhang, D A Genov, G Bartal and X Zhang, “Deep Subwavelength Waveguide Using Negative Permeability Metamaterials”, Phys. Rev. Lett., 102, 043904 (2009) http://prl.aps.org/abstract/PRL/v102/i4/e043904

J Valentine*, S Zhang*, T Zentgraf*, E Ulin-Avila, D A Genov, G Bartal and X Zhang, (* equally contributed first authors) “Three Dimensional Optical Metamaterials Exhibiting Negative Refractive Index”, Nature, 455, 376 (2008) http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v455/n7211/abs/nature07247.html

S Zhang, D A Genov, Y Wang, M Liu and X Zhang, “Plasmonic Metamaterials with Coupling Induced Transparency”, Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 047401 (2008) http://prl.aps.org/abstract/PRL/v101/i4/e047401

S Zhang, D A Genov, C Sun and X Zhang, “Cloaking of Matter Waves”, Phys. Rev. Lett. 100, 123002 (2008) http://prl.aps.org/abstract/PRL/v100/i12/e123002

W Fan, S Zhang, N C Panoiu, A Abdenour, S Krishna, R M Osgood, K J Malloy and S R J Brueck, “Second harmonic generation from a nanopatterned isotropic nonlinear material”, Nano Lett. 6, 1027 (2006) http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/nl0604457

S Zhang, W Fan, N C Panoiu, K J Malloy, M R Osgood and S R J Brueck, “Demonstration of Near-Infrared Negative-Index Materials” Phys. Rev. Lett, 95, 137404 (2005) http://prl.aps.org/abstract/PRL/v95/i13/e137404

S Zhang, W Fan, B K Minhas, A Fraunglass, K J Malloy and S R J Brueck, “Midinfrared resonant magnetic nanostructures exhibiting a negative permeability”, Phys. Rev. Lett, 94, 037402 (2005) http://prl.aps.org/abstract/PRL/v94/i3/e037402

W Fan, S Zhang, B K Minhas, Kevin J. Malloy, and S. R. J. Brueck, “Enhanced Infrared Transmission through Subwavelength Coaxial Metallic Arrays”, Phys. Rev. Lett. 94 033902 (2005). http://prl.aps.org/abstract/PRL/v94/i3/e033902

Shuang's work in developing 'invisibility cloaks' was covered extensively in the national press  including video content for the Guardian and articles in the Daily Mirror and Metro .