We are pleased to announce that as of September 2026, Prof. Zhanghua Hanwill join the Associate Editors of the journal Advanced Metamaterials, sister journal to Plasmonics (2025 Impact Factor 5.6) . Please read the interview below where Prof. Han explains his role in the journal and what he hopes to achieve, available in English and 中文
What does your work focus on?
My research focuses on nanophotonics, metamaterials and metasurfaces, particularly on controlling light–matter interactions at the subwavelength scale.
During my PhD and postdoctoral research, I mainly worked on plasmonics for subwavelength photonic integration. My work explored how strongly confined plasmonic modes can be used to guide, manipulate and integrate optical signals beyond the conventional diffraction limit. This background provided an important foundation for my later research in metamaterials and metasurfaces.
Over the past several years, my research has increasingly focused on nonlocal metasurfaces, where optical responses arise from collective interactions and guided resonances extending across the structure rather than only from individual meta-atoms. I am particularly interested in high-Q guided-mode resonances, optical flatbands, chiral responses and non-Hermitian photonic phenomena.
A major direction of my current research is the generation and control of highly coherent mid-infrared thermal radiation. By engineering nonlocal resonances, we aim to control the spectrum, directionality, coherence and polarization of thermal emission, with potential applications in molecular spectroscopy, gas sensing and compact on-chip infrared sources.
In some sense, my research journey from plasmonic waveguides and integrated devices to nonlocal metasurfaces also reflects a broader evolution of the field—from guiding light in deeply subwavelength structures to engineering collective photonic states with tailored radiation properties.
[中文] 我的研究主要聚焦于纳米光子学、超材料与超表面，重点关注亚波长尺度下的光场调控以及光与物质相互作用。
在博士和博士后阶段，我主要从事面向亚波长光子集成的表面等离激元学研究。我希望利用表面等离激元模式强烈的亚波长局域能力，在突破传统衍射极限的尺度上实现光信号的传输、操控与集成。这段研究经历也为我后来进入超材料和超表面领域奠定了重要基础。
近年来，我的研究重点逐渐转向非局域超表面。与主要依赖单个超原子局域响应的传统超表面不同，非局域超表面的光学响应更依赖于结构中的集体相互作用、导模以及能带特性。目前，我尤其关注高Q导模共振、光学平带、手性响应以及非厄米光子学等方向。
其中，一个重要研究方向是高相干中红外热辐射的产生与调控。传统热辐射通常具有宽带、非相干和弱偏振选择等特点，而通过设计非局域超表面中的高Q集体光学模式，我们希望能够对热辐射的光谱、方向性、时间和空间相干性以及偏振状态进行精确调控，并进一步探索其在分子光谱、气体传感和紧凑型片上红外光源等方面的应用。
从某种意义上说，我个人研究方向从等离激元波导与集成器件逐步转向非局域超表面，也反映了纳米光子学领域近年来的一种发展趋势：从利用深亚波长结构实现光的传输和局域调控，逐渐走向对集体光子态、光学能带以及辐射过程的工程化设计。
What are your expectations or plans for your work as an editor?
As an Associate Editor, I hope to help Advanced Metamaterials become a forum for both fundamental advances and emerging applications in metamaterials and metasurfaces.
The field has evolved rapidly from early demonstrations of unusual electromagnetic properties toward increasingly sophisticated control of waves, including metasurfaces, nonlocal responses, high-Q resonances, reconfigurable systems, sensing, imaging, thermal photonics and integrated devices.
I would particularly like to encourage work that introduces new physical concepts, new mechanisms and genuinely new functionalities, rather than incremental variations of existing structures. At the same time, I believe it is important to connect fundamental metamaterial physics with meaningful applications.
I also hope to contribute to a rigorous, fair and efficient peer-review process, ensuring that important new ideas are evaluated by appropriate experts and communicated clearly to the community.
[中文] 作为《Advanced Metamaterials》的副主编，我希望能够推动期刊成为一个兼顾基础物理创新与前沿应用的重要学术平台。
超材料领域在过去二十多年中经历了非常快速的发展。从最初关注人工结构所产生的新奇电磁响应，到如今的超表面、非局域光学、高Q共振、可重构系统、传感、成像、热光子学以及集成器件，这一领域的研究内涵和应用边界都在不断拓展。
我尤其希望鼓励那些能够提出新物理概念、新作用机制或者实现真正新功能的研究，而不仅仅是对已有结构和设计进行简单的增量式改进。同时，我也非常重视基础物理与实际应用之间的联系。很多有影响力的研究，往往既具有清晰而深入的物理机制，又能够体现其潜在的科学价值或技术应用前景。
在编辑工作中，我也希望能够坚持严谨、公平和高效的同行评审，使真正具有原创性的工作能够得到合适领域专家的充分评价，同时帮助作者更加清晰地呈现其研究的重要性。
What do you believe the journal Advanced Metamaterials offers the scientific community and why should researchers publish there?
One of the strengths of Advanced Metamaterials is its broad and interdisciplinary scope. Modern metamaterials research brings together physics, optics and photonics, materials science, nanotechnology, engineering, sensing, imaging and biomedical research.
Many exciting developments are now emerging at the interfaces between these disciplines. Metasurfaces, for example, are increasingly being explored not only for wavefront control, but also for spectroscopy, molecular sensing, thermal emission, imaging and integrated photonics.
I therefore see Advanced Metamaterials as a platform connecting fundamental physics, metamaterial and metasurface design, fabrication, device engineering and real-world applications.
As a new journal, it also has the opportunity to grow together with emerging areas of the field. I hope researchers will consider Advanced Metamaterials particularly when their work introduces a new concept, reveals new physics, enables a new functionality or demonstrates how metamaterial engineering can address an important scientific or technological challenge.
[中文] 我认为，《Advanced Metamaterials》的一个重要特点是其广泛而具有交叉性的学术定位。今天的超材料研究已经不仅局限于传统的电磁学或光学，而是与材料科学、纳米技术、工程、传感、成像、生物医学以及集成光子学等多个领域形成了越来越紧密的联系。
很多令人兴奋的新进展也恰恰出现在这些学科的交叉地带。例如，超表面最初主要用于光场和波前调控，而如今已经进一步拓展到分子光谱、化学和生物传感、热辐射、成像以及集成光子学等方向。
因此，我希望《Advanced Metamaterials》能够成为一个连接基础物理、超材料与超表面设计、微纳加工、器件工程以及实际应用的平台。
作为一本新创办的期刊，《Advanced Metamaterials》也拥有一个独特优势，那就是可以伴随领域中新方向的发展不断拓展自身的学术边界。我希望，当一项工作提出了新的概念、揭示了新的物理机制、实现了新的功能，或者展示了超材料如何解决重要的科学或技术问题时，研究人员能够将《Advanced Metamaterials》视为一个合适的发表平台。
Prof. Zhanghua Han, Shandong Normal University