Professor Angela Demetriadou BSc, MSc, PhD, MInstP, FHEA

• PhD in Metamaterials, Imperial College London, 2010
• MSc in Radiation Physics with Medical applications (Medical Physics), University College London, 2006
• BSc (with First Class Honours) in Physics, University of Bristol, 2005

Professor Angela Demetriadou qualified for a BSc with First Class Honours in Physics from University of Bristol in 2005. She continued her studies at University College London (UCL) with a MSc on Radiation Physics with Medical applications (Medical Physics), specializing on Radiotherapy planning techniques. Then, she went on to study for a PhD in Metamaterials at Imperial College London with Professor Sir John B Pendry. Apart from a brief period at Queen Mary, University of London, Angela continued to work at Imperial College London. Her work evolved from microwave to optical metamaterials, and later on to plasmonics and nanophotonics, which are the main focus of her current research interests. Since 2017, she is part of the Metamaterials Research Centre at the University of Birmingham.

Angela was awarded the Early Career Award from the New Journal of Physics (IoP) in January 2015 for which she was ‘recognised as being an extremely talented and enthusiastic young researcher’ and the 1st Prize for the Best Overall Paper at the Metamaterials Congress in 2016.

Angela has undertaken a broad range of teaching and various teaching development activities, which were acknowledged with the award of the Fellowship of Higher Education Academy (FHEA) in 2017. Additionally, she served as the Chair of the Physics Research Associate committee at Imperial College London and at the same time participated as a member at the departmental Juno Transparency and Opportunity Committee. Finally, she is a member of Optical Society America (OSA), American Chemical Society (ACS), AAAS/Science and the Institute of Physics (IoP). In 2017, she joined the Quantum Electronics and Photonics (QEP) group committee of IoP as a Member.

Year 4 Nanophotonics, Term 1

Current students:

• Alexandra Crai, PhD, Imperial College London
• Nuttawut Kongsuwan, PhD, Imperial College London
• Peter Fox, PhD, Imperial College London

Past students:

• Jae-Yeon (Vincent) Lim, UROP student, 2017
• Victoria Walpole, MSc final year project, Imperial College London, 2013-2014
• Miquel Blancafort Jorquera, Erasmus MSc student, Imperial College London, 2013

For current PhD opportunities please email Dr Angela Demetriadou as early as possible.

My research interests are focused on the theory of nano-plasmonics, nano-photonics and metamaterials. My work aims to develop analytical and numerical techniques that link abstract theories with experiments.

Nano-plasmonics

Light has the ability to drive the free electrons in metals, such that the electrons are concentrated at metal-dielectric interfaces. This accumulation of electrons induces strong field enhancements, referred to as plasmons (Fig.1). 

 For metallic nano-structures, light collectively oscillates the electrons in the nano-structure, creating localized plasmons. By specifically designing the shape and arrangement of metallic nano-structures, one has the ability to manipulate plasmons (see Fig.2) and even concentrate light at small enough volumes that enclose just one molecule.

Angela’s work focuses on designing nano-devices for sensing, nano-photonic and quantum technology applications, utilizing the unique properties of plasmons.

Quantum Nano-Plasmonics

Light-Matter Strong coupling in nanoplasmonics

Photo-excited molecules absorb a photon to excite an electron to a higher energy state, and emit a photon when the electron relaxes to the molecule’s ground state (Fig.3). 

 

When such photo-excited molecules are placed in plasmonic devices, then the plasmon causes the electron excitations in molecules, but also emissions from the molecule excite the plasmons. Hence, light (plasmon) and matter (molecule) blend together, forming a hybrid system with unique properties. This behaviour allows us to access and manipulate the quantum state of molecules and has the potential to bring and develop quantum technologies at room temperatures.

Angela’s work focuses on the theoretical study and numerical modelling of these strongly-coupled systems, aiming to understand and utilize their properties for future applications. 

Metamaterials

Metamaterials are artificial media made of many nano-metallic components (i.e. nanoplasmonic structures). When the wavelength of light is much larger than these meta-components, we can design the metamaterial such that we manipulate the wave to behave in very unique and unorthodox ways. During the last few years, significant efforts and breakthroughs have been made on fabricating metamaterials with sub-units of just few nanometers. For optical frequencies, self-assembled methods are able to fabricate very complex and interesting metamaterial designs, such as the gyroidal structure (see Fig. 4).

Gyroid Nano-Plasmonic Metamaterials

The Gyroid metamaterial (Fig. 4) is a triply-periodic metallic nanostructure with chiral features as shown in figure 1. It is considered an excellent candidate for achieving chirality in the visible wavelength region. As one can see, the gyroid metamaterial is a combination of several inter-connected helices. Its unique design has led to myriad of interesting phenomena, for both its dielectric (photonic crystal) and metallic (metamaterial) gyroids.

Angela’s work focuses on theoretically modelling and understanding the complex behaviour of the gyroid and other similar metamaterial structures. She has interpreted the electromagnetic and chiral properties of the gyroid metamaterial in terms of a tri-helical model, which led to significant experimental breakthroughs on the ultra-fast non-linear behaviour and tenability of the structure.

• Quantum Electronics and Photonics Group Committee, (Institute of Physics, IoP), Member since Sept. 2017
• Consultant for Metamaterials Technologies Inc (MTI)

Member of Scientific Communities

• Optical Society of America – OSA, since August 2012
• American Chemical Society – ACS, since April 2016
• AAAS/Science, since September 2016
• Institute of Physics – IoP, since February 2017

Reviewer for research-related funding proposals

• Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)
• Belgium- Research-Foundation-Flanders (FWO)
• National Science Centre (Poland)
• British Council - Newton Fund