◎ Reporter Ye Qing
A few days ago, Chu Junhao, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, showed a video of using special materials to achieve "stealth". "In the future, with the gradual maturity of 'stealth' technology and metamaterials, the stealth imagination in science fiction works will gradually become a reality." In the video, Chu Junhao said, "I believe that there will be more 'stealth' equipment to change our lives in the future." ”
The metamaterials mentioned by Chu Junhao have been applied to the fields of electromagnetism, acoustics, mechanics, heat and quantum. The concept of metamaterials originated in the 20s of the 60th century, but it was not until the beginning of the 21st century that people really paid attention. Metamaterials refer to composite materials that precisely manipulate the physical field at subwavelength scales through artificial microstructures. Through the precise design and control of the microstructure, researchers can form new functional structures of metamaterials.
With the rapid development of metamaterial technology, researchers have applied it to various advanced equipment, and the related technologies derived from it have also had a disruptive effect in many fields. "In the past 20 years, the former stage is doing basic research, and the latter stage is the entire industry's 'concentrated firepower' to promote metamaterials from the laboratory to the engineering stage." Liu Ruopeng, chairman of Kuang-Chi Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Kuang-Chi Technology), believes that after nearly 10 years of development, metamaterial technology has become an indispensable mainstream technology in the field of new equipment R&D and manufacturing. For example, in the field of aerospace equipment, metamaterials can be used to make lightweight, high-strength spacecraft materials to improve the performance of space probes and satellites. In the medical field, the acoustic properties of metamaterials can be leveraged to achieve higher resolution medical images.
"There are three new changes to metamaterials today. First, the application and functionality of metamaterials have been continuously enhanced, from the initial edge technology or emerging technology to the current mainstream technology; Second, metamaterial technology has realized the update and iteration from the third generation to the fourth generation, and has begun to enter the large-scale application link; Third, the application of metamaterials has changed by orders of magnitude. Liu Ruopeng said.
A few days ago, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council jointly issued the first batch of key development guidance catalogues for the industrialization of cutting-edge materials, and metamaterials were included in the catalogue. "In the past few years, our main work has been to strive to achieve large-scale mass production of fourth-generation metamaterial technology products." Liu Ruopeng introduced that the fourth-generation metamaterial technology has subverted the previous technical cognition. At present, the fourth-generation metamaterial technology has made a major breakthrough and entered the application stage. Some of the products that are expected to be delivered by the end of this year or early next year will be applied to the fourth generation of metamaterial technology.
In recent years, China's new materials industry has developed rapidly, and the scale of the industry has been growing. However, due to the high technical threshold and long R&D cycle of cutting-edge material production, its application needs to be further explored. "Objectively, the development space of the metamaterials industry is very large, and its development will affect more industries. However, if we want to continue to study metamaterials in depth, we need to have a relatively clear definition and definition. In a period when the development of the discipline is more and more prosperous, it is necessary to be calm and cautious. Liu Ruopeng emphasized that any new technology from the laboratory to industrialization has a common law, and its commonality and law should be respected.