Editorial on special issue “Metamaterials and Plasmonics in Asia”

Abstract

The special issue "Metamaterials and Plasmonics in Asia" was developed from the A3 Metamaterials Forum, an annual research meeting first established in 2016, but also includes other specially invited papers. Since the first published report on negative refractive index by Prof. Victor Veselago in the Soviet Union, the experimental demonstration of negative index materials in the microwave region by Dr. David Smith in the USA, and the high-resolution imaging application by Prof. John Pendry in the UK, research on metamaterials has exploded in different academic fields. In the early stages of metamaterials research, most of the research activity took place in the USA, the UK and Europe, whilst in Asia it was scarce and rather scattered. Although science is certainly not limited by national borders, it is important to hold regional meetingsespecially in Asiato create a more cohesive and collaborative environment on the continent, enabling young scientists to be easily introduced into the local Metamaterials and Plasmonics community and create a platform for collaborative research. During the Metamaterials 2010 Conference in Karlsruhe, Germany, the late Prof. Masanori Hangyo (Osaka University, Japan) and Prof. Jeong Weon Wu (Ewha Womans University, Korea) conceived the idea of a joint Korea-Japan organized Metamaterials Forum. This first Korea-Japan Metamaterials Forum was organised in Seoul, Korea. Sadly, Prof. Hangyo passed away in 2014, and Prof. Teruya Ishihara (Tohoku University) took over as Japanese co-chair at that point. In 2016, the Metamaterials Forum expanded geographically to include China, with Prof. Lei Zhou (Fudan University, China) as Chinese co-chair and the forum was renamed to "A3 Metamaterials Forum". This special issue holds a plethora of research topics in metamaterials and plasmonics and includes 30 original research articles and six review articles. Of these 36 articles, nineteen contributions originate from China (including one from Hong Kong SAR), six from Korea, five from Singapore, four from Japan, and two from Australia.