David R. Smith

About

Dr. David R. Smith is the James B. Duke Distinguished Professor in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at Duke University. He also serves as the Director for the Center of Metamaterials and Integrated Plasmonics. In addition to his primary appointment at Duke, Dr. Smith holds adjunct and visiting professorships in the Physics Departments at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), and Imperial College, London, respectively. His research focuses on advanced electromagnetic materials and composites, with particular emphasis on photonic crystals and metamaterials. Dr. Smith's work spans the electromagnetic spectrum from radio and microwaves to visible light, and he maintains a close connection with applied aspects of this research, often pursuing proof-of-concept device implementations alongside fundamental science. His leadership of a dynamic research group reflects active interests in metamaterial research, plasmonics, transformation optics, and cloaking technologies.

Research topics

• Computer Science
• Optics
• Telecommunications
• Materials science
• Optoelectronics
• Physics

Selected publications

• Ultra-broadband metamaterial absorbers from long to very long infrared regime

  Light Science & Applications · 2021 · 324 citations

  /Ti absorbers which can absorb 92% and 87% of ultra-broadband light in the 14-30 μm and 8-30 μm spectral range, respectively. Our findings establish general and systematic strategies for guiding the design of metamaterial absorbers with excellent broadband absorption and pave the way for enhancing the optical performance in applications of infrared thermal emitters, imaging and photodetectors.

  DOI

• Self-organized freeform waveguiding

  Communications Physics · 2026-04-08

  articleOpen access

  Nature offers remarkable examples of complex photonic architectures such as those responsible for the iridescent colors of butterfly wings that emerge spontaneously during growth, well before any centralized control takes place. Arising from local rules, these structures exhibit advanced optical functionalities, such as photonic band gaps, without relying on in-situ optimization or top-down design. Inspired by biological morphogenesis, we introduce an optimization-free approach for the automated…

  PublisherDOI

• Large area infrared wideband flexible extinction film

  Research Square · 2025-09-24

  preprintOpen access
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Metamaterials and Negative Refractive Index

  ArXiv.org · 2025-07-08

  preprintOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Recently, artificially constructed metamaterials have become of considerable interest, as these materials can exhibit electromagnetic characteristics unlike any conventional materials. Artificial magnetism and negative refractive index are two specific types of behavior that have been demonstrated over the past few years, illustrating the new physics and new applications possible when we expand our view as to what constitutes a material. In this review, we describe recent advances in metamateria…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• Collaborative Research: SWIFT: SMALL: Enabling Seamless Coexistence between Passive and Active Networks using Reconfigurable Reflecting Surfaces

  NSF · $150k · 2020–2023

Frequent coauthors

• Mohammadreza F. Imani

  Arizona State University

  196 shared

• Cristian Ciracì

  Center for Biomolecular Nanotechnologies

  183 shared

• Jonah N. Gollub

  172 shared

• Jack J. Mock

  Plasmonics (United States)

  158 shared

• Stéphane Larouche

  129 shared

• Yaroslav Urzhumov

  Intellectual Ventures (United States)

  128 shared

• Okan Yurduseven

  Queen's University Belfast

  114 shared

• Timothy Sleasman

  110 shared

Labs

• David R. Smith GroupPI

  Research on advanced electromagnetic materials and composites, including photonic crystals and metamaterials

Awards & honors

• Fellow (NAI). National Academy of Inventors. 2016
• Highly Cited Researcher. Thomson Reuters. 2014
• Fellow. Optical Society of America. 2013
• Top Ten Breakthroughs for 2006. Science Magazine (Cloaking).…
• Top 50 Researchers. Scientific American. 2008

Similar researchers at Duke University

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• Jian Peih-96
• Michael Reiterh-83