NIT Strategic Workshop Emerging Technologies for Future Optical and Wireless Networks September 8 & 9, 2003 Numerical Modeling of Meta-material Structures in the Time-Domain Costas D. Sarris Electrical and Computer Engineering University of Toronto Abstract. Recent advances in computational electromagnetics have enabled the broadband simulation of complex devices. In particular, the Finite Difference Time Domain method (FDTD) offers a versatile tool for the analysis and design of arbitrary inhomogeneous and potentially nonlinear and/or dispersive devices, with significant computational cost though. In this talk, we describe how the method is applied to Negative Index of Refraction (NIR) structures from two points of view: First, considering the NIR media as electromagnetically dispersive ones and second, considering the planar implementations of these media that were proposed at the University of Toronto by Eleftheriades et al. and Balmain et al. in recent publications. Through the presentation of our results, advantages and remaining challenges for both modeling approaches are explained. Future work including the implementation of novel multigrid methods for the purpose of enhancing the computational efficiency of the FDTD is also discussed. Biography. Costas D. Sarris received the Diploma in Electrical and Computer Engineering (with distinction) from the National Technical University of Athens, Athens, Greece in 1997, a M.Sc. (Electrical Engineering), a M.Sc. (Applied and Interdisciplinary Mathematics) and a Ph.D. (Electrical Engineering) from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor in 1998, 2001 and 2002 respectively. He joined the Edward S. Rogers Sr. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering of the University of Toronto, as an Assistant Professor, in October 2002. His doctoral thesis was on the field of time domain analysis of microwave circuits and systems, utilizing wavelets . He has published more than twenty papers in refereed journals and conference proceedings, all of them related to the development and application of time-domain techniques for high-frequency circuit analysis and design. His undergraduate research led to the development of a rapidly convergent full-wave, integral equation based analysis technique for anisotropic channel optical waveguides, embedded in anisotropic substrates. During his undergraduate studies, he received four Hellenic Fellowship Foundation prizes for the academic years 1993-97, three Technical Chamber of Greece awards for the academic years 1994-97, all of them for scholastic achievement, the 1997 NTUA/ECE class bronze medal and a Student Paper Award (Honorable Mention) in the 2001 IEEE MTT-S International Microwave Symposium, Phoenix, AZ. More info: Prof. Sarris' web site