Gyroid Optical Metamaterials: Solvent Vapour Annealing, Confined Crystallisation, and Optical Anisotropy

The optical properties of a material can be changed in two fundamental ways: by varying the chemical composition of the material (creating a composite) or by varying the sub-wavelength structure of the material (creating a metamaterial). When it comes to light in the visible spectrum, the demand for large quantities of intricate, potentially three-dimensional, nanostructured materials can be met using block copolymer self-assembly. In this talk, we will explore the process of creating block copolymer nanostructures with a very particular, chiral morphology—the gyroid—and will highlight some of the unusual optical properties associated with gyroid-structured metamaterials.