Richard Averitt

About

Professor Richard Averitt is a Professor of Physics at the University of California, San Diego since 2014. Prior to this, he served as an Adjunct Professor of Physics at Boston University from 2014 to 2016, Associate Professor from 2010 to 2013, and Assistant Professor from 2006 to 2010. Before his academic appointments, he was a Staff Scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory from 2001 to 2006 and a Director's Postdoctoral Fellow there from 1999 to 2001. He earned his PhD in Applied Physics from Rice University in 1998. His research focuses on the optical and electronic properties of quantum materials. He utilizes time-resolved optical spectroscopy techniques spanning from the far-infrared through the visible spectrum to explore the fundamental properties of quantum materials, with an emphasis on their dynamics and control. Additionally, he has long-standing interests in metamaterials and plasmonics. His work aims to understand and manipulate the behavior of complex condensed matter systems using advanced spectroscopic methods.

Research topics

• Physics
• Optics
• Optoelectronics
• Chemistry
• Computational physics
• Materials science

Selected publications

• Imaging with metamaterials

  Nature Reviews Physics · 2021 · 204 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  DOI

• Terahertz investigation of bound states in the continuum of metallic metasurfaces

  Optica · 2020 · 194 citations

  The concept of “bound states in the continuum” (BIC) describes an idealized physical system exhibiting zero radiative loss composed, for example, of an infinitely extended array of resonators. In principle, vanishing of radiative losses enables an infinitely high-quality factor and corresponding infinite lifetime of the resonance. As such, BIC inspired metasurfaces and photonic designs aim to achieve superior performance in various applications including sensing and lasing. We describe an analyt…

  DOI

• Programmable hyperbolic polaritons in van der Waals semiconductors

  Science · 2021 · 100 citations

  and then visualized, by transient nanoimaging, the hyperbolic rays that traveled along conical trajectories inside of the crystal. We establish here the signatures of programmable hyperbolic electrodynamics and assess the role of quantum transitions of excitons within the Rydberg series in the observed polaritonic response.

  DOI

• Active and tunable nanophotonic metamaterials

  Nanophotonics · 2022-08-16 · 61 citations

  reviewOpen access

  Metamaterials enable subwavelength tailoring of light-matter interactions, driving fundamental discoveries which fuel novel applications in areas ranging from compressed sensing to quantum engineering. Importantly, the metallic and dielectric resonators from which static metamaterials are comprised present an open architecture amenable to materials integration. Thus, incorporating responsive materials such as semiconductors, liquid crystals, phase-change materials, or quantum materials (e.g., su…

  PublisherDOI

• Large Exchange Coupling Between Localized Spins and Topological Bands in MnBi₂Te₄

  Advanced Materials · 2022-10-03 · 27 citations

  articleOpen access

  Abstract Magnetism in topological materials creates phases exhibiting quantized transport phenomena with potential technological applications. The emergence of such phases relies on strong interaction between localized spins and the topological bands, and the consequent formation of an exchange gap. However, this remains experimentally unquantified in intrinsic magnetic topological materials. Here, this interaction is quantified in MnBi 2 Te 4 , a topological insulator with intrinsic antiferroma…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Antoinette J. Taylor

  Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies

  167 shared

• Inge Dittmer

  Stanford University

  121 shared

• Ralf B. Wehrspohn

  Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg

  121 shared

• Zhiyuan Li

  121 shared

• Hatice Altug

  École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne

  121 shared

• Sjef Öllers

  University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

  121 shared

• Mark L. Brongersma

  Stanford University

  121 shared

• Peter Günter

  École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne

  121 shared

Labs

• Averitt Research GroupPI

  Quantum materials, time-resolved optical spectroscopy, metamaterials, plasmonics

Education

• Other

  UC San Diego

  1991

• Ph.D., Applied Physics

  Rice University

  1998

Similar researchers at University of California, San Diego

• J. Silvio Gutkindh-163
• Eduard Arzth-110
• Vicki Grassianh-102