Engheta was born on October 8, 1955, in Tehran. After earning a B.S. degree from the school of engineering (Daneshkadeh-e-Fanni) of the University of Tehran, he left for the United States in the summer of 1978 and earned his master's and PhD degrees from the California Institute of Technology.
He is one of the original scientists in the field of modern metamaterials and the originator of the fields of near-zero-index metamaterials, plasmonic cloaking and optical nano circuitry (optical metatronics).[citation needed]
His primary work is in metamaterial-based optical nano circuitry, in which properly designed nano structures function as lumped optical circuit elements such as optical capacitors, optical inductors and optical resistors. These are the building blocks for the metatronic circuits operating with light. This concept has been recently verified and realized experimentally by him and his research group at the University of Pennsylvania. This provides a new circuit paradigm for information processing at the nanoscale.[citation needed]
His near-zero-index structures exhibit unique properties in light–matter interaction that have provided new possibilities in nanophotonics.[citation needed]
His plasmonic cloaking ideas have led to new methods in stealth physics.[citation needed]
He and his group have developed several areas and concepts in the fields of metamaterials and plasmonic optics, including, (1) ‘extreme-parameter metamaterials’ and 'epsilon-near-zero (ENZ) metamaterials'; (2) the concept of Omega structures, as one of the building blocks of structured materials; (3) ultrathin cavities and waveguides, with sizes beyond diffraction limits, providing possibilities for unprecedented miniaturization of devices; (4) supercoupling phenomena between waveguides using low-permittivity ENZ metamaterials; (5) extended Purcell effects in nano-optics using the ENZ phenomena, in which enhanced photon density of states occurs in a relatively large area with essentially uniform phase; (6) far-field subwavelength imaging lens based on ENZ hyperbolic metamaterials; (7) scattering-cancellation-based plasmonic cloaking and transparency; (8) merging the field of graphene with the field of metamaterials and plasmonic optics in the infrared regime, providing the roadmaps for one-atom-thick optical devices and one-atom-thick information processing; (9) microwave artificial chirality; (10) “signal-processing” metamaterials and “meta-machine”, and (11) “digital” metamaterials.
He has been the H. Nedwill Ramsey Professor at the University of Pennsylvania since January 2005, affiliated with the departments of Electrical and Systems Engineering, Bioengineering, Materials Science and Engineering, and Physics and Astronomy. In 2026, he was elected as a member of the National Academy of Engineering "for contributions to the development of metamaterials and their applications".
Awards and honors
Engheta has received the following honors and awards:
↑N. Engheta, "Circuits with Light at Nanoscales: Optical Nanocircuits Inspired by Metamaterials”, Science, Vol. 317, pp. 1698–1702, September 21, 2007
↑N. Engheta, "Taming Light at the Nanoscale,” Physics World, Vol. 23, No. 9, pp. 31-34, September 2010
↑N. Engheta, A. Salandrino, A. Alu, “Circuit Elements at Optical Frequencies: Nanoinductor, Nanocapacitor, and Nanoresistor,” Physical Review Letters, Vol. 95, 095504, August 26, 2005
↑Y. Sun, B. Edwards, A. Alu, and N. Engheta, “Experimental Realization of Optical Lumped Nanocircuit Elements at Infrared Wavelengths,” Nature Materials, Vol. 11, pp. 208-212, March 2012
↑M. G. Silveirinha and N. Engheta, “Tunneling of Electromagnetic Energy through Sub-Wavelength Channels and Bends Using Epsilon-Near-Zero (ENZ) Materials,” Physical Review Letters, 97, 157403, October 2006
↑M. M. I. Saadoun and N. Engheta, "A Reciprocal Phase Shifter Using Novel Pseudochiral or omega medium," Microwave and Optical Technology Letters, Vol. 5, No. 4, pp. 184-188, April 1992
↑M. M. I. Saadoun and N. Engheta, "Theoretical Study of Electromagnetic Properties of Non-Local Omega Media" a chapter in Progress in Electromagnetics Research (PIER) Monograph Series, Vol. 9 on Bianisotropic and Bi-Isotropic Media and Applications, Alain Priou (ed.), December 1994, ch. 15, pp. 351-397
↑N. Engheta, “An Idea for Thin, Subwavelength Cavity Resonators Using Metamaterials with Negative Permittivity and Permeability,” IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters. Vol. 1, pp. 10-13, 2002
↑B. Edwards, A. Alu, M. Young, M. Silveirinha, and N. Engheta, “Experimental Verification of Epsilon-Near-Zero Metamaterial Coupling and Energy Squeezing Using a Microwave Waveguide”, Physical Review Letters, 100, 033903, January 25, 2008
↑B. Edwards, A. Alu, M. Silveirinha and N. Engheta, “Reflectionless Sharp Bends and Corners in Waveguides Using Epsilon-Near-Zero Effects,” Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 105, 044905, February 18, 2009
↑A. Alu and N. Engheta, “Boosting Molecular Fluorescence with a Plasmonic Nanolauncher,” Physical Review Letters, 103, 043902, July 21, 2009
↑A. Salandrino and N. Engheta, “Far-Field Subdiffraction Optical Microscopy Using Metamaterial Crystals: Theory and Simulations,” Physical Review B, Vol. 74, 075103, August 2006
↑A. Alu and N. Engheta, “Achieving Transparency with Metamaterial and Plasmonic Coatings,” Physical Review E, vol. 72, 016623, 2005
↑B. Edwards, A. Alu, M. Silveirinha, and N. Engheta, “Experimental Verification of Plasmonic Cloaking at Microwave Frequencies with Metamaterials,” Physical Review Letters, 103, 153901, October 6, 2009
↑A. Vakil and N. Engheta, “Transformation Optics Using Graphene,” Science, Vol. 332, pp. 1291–1294, June 10, 2011
↑A. Vakil, N. Engheta, “Fourier Optics on Graphene,” Physical Review B, 85, 075434, February 27, 2012
↑N. Engheta and P. Pelet, "Modes in Chirowaveguides," Optics Letters, Vol. 14, No. 11, 593-595, June 1989
