Understanding and tailoring light-matter interactions lies at the heart of many modern solid-state technologies, ranging from imaging, to solar energy harvesting, data storage and quantum computations. This inspires research in artificial composite materials with properties acquired by design, termed metamaterials. In this talk, I will demonstrate how, using metamaterial principles, we introduce novel material functionalities that surpass natural bounds. Examples include optical artificial magnetism, unattainable with natural materials, and ultra-lightweight ultra-reflective mirrors composed of few-atoms-thick van der Waals materials. Controlling the flow of light has further implications in controlling the flow or radiant heat, or thermal emission. Amongst a plethora of applications of thermal emission engineering, in this talk I will focus on heat-to-electricity energy conversion with thermophotovoltaic systems. I will show that these zero-carbon-footprint systems can convert solar heat as well as waste heat from the manufacturing sector into useful electricity, with efficiencies reaching thermodynamic limits.

Georgia obtained her BS and MS degrees from the National Technical University of Athens, Greece, in electrical and computer engineering, where she majored in telecommunications and nanoelectronics. She then worked for one year at CERN, in Geneva, Switzerland, in radio frequency particle accelerators. She obtained here PhD from the California Institute of Technology, in Pasadena, California, in 2018. Her thesis pertains to nanophotonic design, optical magnetism and metamaterials. Currently, Georgia is a TomKat Postdoctoral Fellow in sustainable energy at Stanford University, where she investigates radiant heat transfer in the nanoscale with applications in renewable energy and optoelectronics, in the group of Prof. Shanhui Fan. Georgia is the recipient of the Marie Sklodowska-Curie European Postdoctoral Fellowship, the TomKat Postdoctoral Fellowship at Stanford University, and the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship.