Department of Electronics and Nanoengineering

Designer Materials and Devices

The Designer Materials and Devices group is located at the Department of Electronics and Nanoengineering, Aalto University. Our research interests span multiple dimensions: (i) from fundamental electrodynamics to functional devices; (ii) from microscopic to macroscopic electromagnetic systems; (iii) from microwaves to visible; (iv) from one-dimensional to four-dimensional geometries. The core of our research is in metamaterials and metasurfaces.
Artistic illustration of the concept of space-time metamaterials
Artistic illustration of the concept of space-time metamaterials inspired by "La persistència de la memòria"

Nature has provided us with an abundance of materials hosting diverse physical properties. Among them, electrodynamic material properties stand out as one of the most important for a variety of applications, from communications and electronics to medicine and entertainment. However, the range and strength of electrodynamic properties of natural materials are often limited and cannot satisfy rapidly growing needs of the modern industry. This circumstance has led to the emergence of an important category of designer matter which embraces composites, colloids, photonic crystals, metamaterials, and others. The key aim of this field is to develop new materials with desired properties and to explore and invent principally novel functionalities.

Research

We pursue 4 research programs towards advanced designer materials and devices ...

based on novel material substances
Metacrystal
Tellegen metamaterial

... based on novel engineering approaches. Design of next-generation reconfigurable intelligent surfaces using machine learning techniques.

Metacrystal
Tellegen metamaterial
Photonic time crystals with metasurfaces

... based on novel topologies. Enhancement of weak exotic effects in complex matter in connection to some concepts of quantum field theory.

Tellegen metamaterial
Photonic time crystals with metasurfaces
based on novel material substances

... based on novel dimensions. Design of time-varying systems.

Photonic time crystals with metasurfaces
based on novel material substances
Metacrystal

... based on novel material substances. Exploring new solutions in optoelectronics with topological materials.

Our current research topics include

•    Metamaterials and metasurfaces
•    Spatial and temporal photonic crystals
•    Magnetics at nanoscale
•    Axion and Weyl electrodynamics
•    Electromagnetic nonreciprocity
•    Fourier optics
•    Machine learning and inverse design
•    Reconfigurable intelligent surfaces 
•    Advanced diffractive optical components.

The group is a member of the Academy of Finland’s Flagship on Photonics Research and Innovation (PREIN).

If you are interested in working with us (M.Sc. & Ph.D. thesis, research visit, collaboration) and/or have your own fellowship/funding, please contact Prof. Viktar Asadchy.

People

 Viktar Asadchy

Viktar Asadchy

Assistant Professor
 Philipp del Hougne

Philipp del Hougne

Tenured CNRS Professor (Nokia Visiting Professor)
 Mikhail Sidorenko

Mikhail Sidorenko

Research Fellow
 Francisco S. Cuesta

Francisco S. Cuesta

Postdoctoral Fellow
 Shuai S.A. Yuan

Shuai S.A. Yuan

Postdoctoral Fellow
 Sravan Vuyyuru

Sravan Vuyyuru

Postdoctoral Fellow
 Mostafa Movahediqomi

Mostafa Movahediqomi

Doctoral Researcher
 Mohamed Mostafa

Mohamed Mostafa

Doctoral Researcher
 Shadi Safaei Jazi

Shadi Safaei Jazi

Doctoral Researcher
 Mohammad Mahdi Asgari

Mohammad Mahdi Asgari

Doctoral Researcher
 Bahman Amrahi

Bahman Amrahi

Doctoral Researcher

Free time

Research visit in Sweden
Group photo
Picnic

Escape room challenge

Group photo
Picnic
Playing laser tag

Picnic in Seurasaari

Picnic
Playing laser tag
After playing ping pong

Playing laser tag

Playing laser tag
After playing ping pong
Nuuksio park

After playing ping-pong

After playing ping pong
Nuuksio park
Research visit in Sweden

Hiking in Nuuksio National Park

Nuuksio park
Research visit in Sweden
Group photo

Research visit to Sweden

News and media coverage

Latest publications

See the entire list of publications at Acris or Google Scholar.

Active Plasmonic Surfaces via Electrically Driven Actuation of DNA-Tethered Nanoparticles

Mohammed M. A. Al Hussain, Abraham Kipnis, Anna Lumppio, Narat Witwiyaruj, Sesha Manuguri, Xuan-Hung Pham, Pierre Bleteau, Maxime Fauconnier, Mohammadmahdi Asgari, Viktar Asadchy, Anton Kuzyk, Kosti Tapio 2026 ACS Nano

Metacrystals: inversely-designed 3D-printed intelligent panels for 6G communications

Mohammad M. Asgari, Peter B. Catrysse, Shuai S.A. Yuan, Haiwen Wang, Shanhui Fan, Viktar Asadchy 2026 Nature Communications

Spaceplates Based on Metasurface Cavities

Daniela Gardey De Carvalho, Francisco J. Díaz-Fernández, Viktar Asadchy, Ana Díaz-Rubio 2026 20th European Conference on Antennas and Propagation, EuCAP 2026

On Systematic Performance of 3-D Holographic MIMO: Clarke, Kronecker, and 3GPP Models

Quan Gao, Shuai S.A. Yuan, Zhanwen Wang, Wanchen Yang, Chongwen Huang, Xiaoming Chen, Wei E.I. Sha 2026 Electromagnetic Science

Photonic time crystals assisted by quasi-bound states in the continuum

Puneet Garg, Evangelos Almpanis, Leander Zimmer, Jan David Fischbach, Xuchen Wang, Mohammad S. Mirmoosa, Markus Nyman, Nikolaos Stefanou, Nikolaos Papanikolaou, Viktar Asadchy, Carsten Rockstuhl 2026 Science Advances

Effective Electromagnetic Degrees of Freedom in Backscatter MIMO Systems

Philipp Del Hougne 2026 IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation

Reduced-Rank Mutual Coupling Representation and Experimental Estimation for Large RIS

Philipp del Hougne 2026 IEEE Wireless Communications Letters

Bidirectional terahertz frequency conversion via structural resonances at a plasma time boundary

Yindong Huang, Bin Zhou, Aijun Xuan, Mingxin Gao, Jing Lou, Xiaomin Qu, Zengxiu Zhao, Ce Shang, Xuchen Wang, Chao Chang, Viktar Asadchy 2026 Science Advances

Mutual-Coupling-Aware Optimization of a Time-Floquet RIS for Harmonic Backscatter Communications

Aleksandr D. Kuznetsov, Ville Viikari, Philipp Del Hougne 2026 IEEE Wireless Communications Letters

Superdirective space-to-surface wave transformations with nonlocal metasurfaces

Yongming Li, Xikui Ma, Viktar Asadchy, Sergei A. Tretyakov 2026 Physical Review Applied
More information on our research in the Aalto research portal.
Research portal

Contact:
Professor Viktar Asadchy
Email: viktar.asadchy at aalto.fi
Tel.: +358504205846

Postal address:
Department of Electronics and Nanoengineering
Aalto University School of Electrical Engineering
P.O. Box 15500, 00076 Aalto, Finland

Visiting address:
Maarintie 8, 02150 Espoo, Finland

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