Babicheva receives NSF Special Creativity Award
Associate Professor Viktoriia Babicheva was awarded an NSF Special Creativity Extension Award for her research into multipole-engineered Mie-resonance metasurfaces, bringing the total award funding to $500,000. The National Science Foundation (NSF) Special Creativity Extension Award is a two-year funding extension on an existing research grant awarded to offer the most creative investigators an extended opportunity to pursue adventurous, high-risk opportunities.
Babicheva’s award is from the Electronic and Photonic Materials Program, part of the Division of Materials Research at NSF, and extends her current NSF grant on the optical properties of van der Waals nanoantennas and their nanoscale resonances. The proposed approach utilizes optical nanoantennas fabricated from layered nanomaterials and arranged into metasurfaces. By supporting electric and magnetic multipolar resonances, these nanoantennas offer a versatile platform for manipulating light, benefiting from highly confined optical modes and straightforward resonant behavior.
The award findings will also be incorporated into a forthcoming handbook by Babicheva on nanophotonics and nanoHUB simulation tools to guide the next generation of scientists and engineers. This recognition further reflects the innovation and leadership demonstrated by our faculty in the advancement of nanophotonics and optical materials.