Spectral domain inverse design for accelerating nanocomposite metamaterials discovery

TL;DR

This paper introduces a spectral domain inverse design method combining genetic algorithms and gradient descent to efficiently discover novel nanocomposite metamaterials with tailored optical properties.

Contribution

It presents a new hybrid optimization approach for inverse design in nanophotonics, focusing on dispersive permittivity in the spectral domain.

Findings

Successfully designed an ultra-thin thermophotovoltaic emitter coating

Demonstrated efficient search for multi-functional optical/thermal metamaterials

Potential to accelerate discovery of complex permittivity materials

Abstract

Inverse design techniques in the context of nanophotonics have helped in discovery of compact and counter-intuitive structures/shapes. We introduce the concept of spectral domain inverse design to search through the optical trade-space (dispersive permittivity) of nanocomposite metamaterials. We develop a hybrid optimization technique that combines genetic algorithms and gradient descent methods. We utilize this technique to inverse design an ultra-thin thermophotovoltaic emitter coating material. Our work can lead to an efficient approach to search for new multi-functional optical/thermal metamaterials with desired complex permittivity.