Are you a PhD graduate looking to be part of an innovative and entrepreneurial team?
This is not your ordinary research job. You will bridge the gap between academia, industry partners and organizations! By working closely with members of Dalhousie University and META, you will deliver high‐quality research in an extraordinary field.
About Us
Meta Materials Inc. “META®” (NASDAQ: MMAT) is a developer of high-performance functional materials and nanocomposites. META® delivers previously unachievable performance, across a range of applications, by inventing, designing, developing and manufacturing sustainable, highly functional materials. Our broad electromagnetic technology platforms enable leading global brands to deliver breakthrough products to their customers in consumer electronics, 5G communications, health and wellness, aerospace, automotive, and clean energy. Our nano-optic technology provides anti-counterfeiting security features for government documents and currencies and authentication for brands. Our achievements have been widely recognized, including being named a Lux Research Innovator of the Year in 2021. Learn more at www.metamaterial.com
About the role:
This is a joint research program between Dalhousie University and Metamaterial Inc. (META), funded by Mitacs Accelerate. The program runs in Halifax for 3.5 years from March 2019. This largest ever program of its kind in Atlantic Canada.
We are seeking 15 highly motivated interns (graduate students and postdocs) with interests in computational electromagnetics, metamaterials, light-matter interactions, radio-wave sensing, material informatics, nanophotonics and nanofabrication. The interns will split their time between Dalhousie University and META.
The program aims to explore and develops innovative designs of resonant structures and novel metamaterial systems within the limits of advanced fabrication capabilities for next-generation light harvesting, optical imaging/filtering, thermal management systems, and enhanced spectroscopy tools in optical and radio-wave frequencies.
Overview:
The manipulation of light has been a key driving factor in human progress since the beginning of our species. Each industrial advance in the world has successively become more and more dependent on the manipulation of light and concomitant advances in our understanding of related phenomena: advances and discoveries in electricity, electromagnetic technology, wireless communications, lasers, and computers have all been driven by new understandings regarding the nature of light and what it is possible to do with it.
Advances in lithography and fabrication techniques in the last few decades have enabled us to control the optical properties of materials at the nanoscale, resulting in the emerging field of metamaterials. As the material size is reduced to deep subwavelength scales, novel designs have been proposed and demonstrated to enhance the light-matter interaction and enable efficient integration of ultra-compact and functional components into optical and electrical systems. As a result, many novel physical phenomena in this field have been introduced with application areas ranging from medicine to telecommunication, from solid-state lighting to spectroscopy. However, these studies so far were limited to lab-scale demonstrations and required expensive nanofabrication tools. There is a clear need for inexpensive fabrication techniques that will enable large-scale implementation of metamaterial-based new technologies.
META has recently developed an innovative technology for producing photonic metamaterials using a low cost, roll-to-roll process. This unique lithography technique provides a distinct capability to realize cost-effective, large-scale fabrication of flexible, nanostructured ultra-thin films for various new technologies. The program will also address scientific challenges induced by the fabrication limitations and develop alternative design solutions for improved device performance.
The program is divided into 5 research areas:
Narrowband Laser Filtering Systems. Nano-structured thin film materials for transparent, ultra thin optical filters will be developed for applications in laser protection in aviation.
Ultra-light-weight Photovoltaic Systems with high efficiencies. Highly efficient flexible solar panels for application in aerial vehicles, with improved overall efficiency of ultra-thin cells by collecting solar light from all angles and enhancing absorption across the most useful spectral regions.
Efficient Light-Emitting Diodes. Optimization of LED emission enhancers that can be mounted on existing LED sources to substantially improve their luminosity, making them super-bright, dramatically brighter to current LED sources.
Medical Diagnostics & Non-Invasive Sensing of Glucose Levels. Modelling and analysis of a dual-sensor glucose monitor that utilizes a wearable thin-film, which makes the skin transparent to radio waves and allows deep enough penetration to reach blood plasma.
Flexible Transparent Conductive Films. Optimization of metallic mesh designs which would provide highest electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding with high transparency and investigate metallic mesh distributions that would minimize haze and obscuration.
Key responsibilities:
The position will be for a Research Scientist, that is expected to work in one or more areas of the program. We are seeking for people with interests in any of the following R&D tasks:
Performing full-wave and numerical simulations to predict angle- and wavelength-dependent optical transmission and reflection.
Building optical characterization tools and developing techniques which will enable angular-resolved transmission and reflection optical measurements
Developing analytical models to predict angular transmission response of incident light
Measuring angular-resolved spectral response of filters
Develop new filter designs which will enable angle-independent performance
Developing analytical models and perform full-field electromagnetic simulations to investigate resonant absorption in vertical and lateral cavities
Investigating fabrication feasibility of promising designs using in-house holographic and RML techniques. Accordingly, identify promising and practical designs for fabrication.
Measuring angular and spectrally-resolved optical response of fabricated structures, compare with theoretical models and numerical simulations
Performance deficiencies will be identified, and structures modified, to optimize optical properties when matched with a variety of solar cell materials, including Si HIT, perovskite and organic thin films.
Optical properties of films will be experimentally measured and compared with simulations.
Perovskite and/or organic solar cells, fabricated at Dalhousie, will be characterized with and without the above films, as with Si HIT.
Explore potential metamaterial structures and materials with promise to improve light outcoupling efficiency from typical LED emitters, such as the InGaN family of materials, as well as next-generation emitters, such as OLEDs. Specific wavelengths of interest for application in white-emitting LEDs will be targeted (both blue LED+phosphor, and RGB approaches)
Results of the experiments will be compared with the theoretical calculations, and the process iterated to optimize metamaterial structures, and application procedures.
Perform laboratory validation of a non-invasive, wireless glucose monitoring method based on a dynamically tunable radio-wave sensor enhanced by metamaterial films using non-biological tissue-mimicking phantoms.
Explore metamaterial designs for impedance matching and integrate these with antennas.
Perform laboratory measurements for the reduction of the reflection coefficient of the metamaterial structures in non-biological samples (acrylic slabs and skin phantoms)
Qualifications:
PhD in physics, Electrical Engineering or relevant Applied Sciences
Experience with FFT, FEM and FDTD Simulation tools, e.g. Lumerical, COMSOL, Sentaurus, RSOFT etc. (preferred)
Design and optimization of nanostructured optical systems using computational simulation tools and analytical models (preferred)
Skills required:
Team player who enjoys working with different disciplines.
High level of independence on the job Effective oral and written communications skills, self-motivated
Ownership and accountability
Strong interpersonal and organizational skills
Ability to work effectively with cross-functional working groups, skill levels and expertise in a global environment
Maintain the highest degree of honesty and integrity at all times.
Feel like you can’t tick all the boxes above? If you have some of the skills and experience that we’re looking for and are willing to use your talent to learn the rest, we encourage you to apply!
What You’ll Love About Us:
META is a fast-growing company with a positive and committed work culture and a phenomenally talented workforce. Our employees are inspired to do exceptional and innovative work, are proud to contribute to the success of the company and are our greatest asset.
META attracts people from many countries and cultures, with over 25 spoken languages represented across our teams. META believes that diversity drives creativity and innovation. We welcome and encourage applications from underrepresented populations; Aboriginal peoples, racialized persons, people living with disabilities (including invisible and episodic disabilities) and members of the LGBTQ2 community.
Our Benefits:
Company provided Group Health Insurance (medical, dental, vision). Competitive paid time off policy; vacation, paid sick leave; personal days; time off over Christmas Casual dress