Biography

Kosmas L. Tsakmakidis was born in Komotini (Rodopi, Greece) in 1979. He received the Diploma degree in electrical and computer engineering, 2002, from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (Thessaloniki, Greece), the Master of Research (MRes) degree in electronic engineering, 2003, from the University of Surrey (Guildford, United Kingdom) with highest distinction (top of his class), and the PhD degree, 2009, from the University of Surrey.

Kosmas has recently been awarded a prestigious five-year research fellowship (having been first equal in the ranking of all applicants), jointly, by The Royal Academy of Engineering (RAEng) and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), for work that will focus on the broader area of "Ultraslow and Stopped Light in Metamaterials". In the past he has been awarded the University Research Scholarship for "Highest Quality Student", University of Surrey, 2003-2006 (amongst students of all University Faculties), the Innovision Prize for "Best project by a student graduating with an MRes", Innovision Research and Technology, 2004, the Third Prize by the Greek Mathematical Society, "EME" (amongst all Lyceum students on national level), Athens, 1996, twice the First Prize by the Rodopi Branch of EME, municipality of Komotini, 1995-1996, and the First Prize in Chess Competition, Municipality of Komotini, 1992. He is listed in Who's Who in the World, Who's Who in Science and Engineering, Dictionary of International Biography and in The Cambridge Blue Book.

Dr Tsakmakidis has worked in a variety of research realms, including negative-refractive-index (NRI) metamaterials (MMs), slow light applications and physics, photonic crystals, computational photonics (finite-difference time-domain, FDTD, method and fully-vectorial finite-difference frequency-domain, FV-FDFD, mode-solvers), finite-difference theory ("exact" and "nonstandard" formulations), and solid-state physics (travelling-wave heterojunction photodetectors and phototransistors). Dr. Tsakmakidis works under the guidance of Professor Ortwin Hess within the Theory and Advanced Computation (TAC) group and strives to explore the complex interactions of electromagnetic waves with engineered "molecules" ("metaparticles") via advanced, parallel computer codes run on ATI's 64-node (148 CPUs) Opteron/InfiniBand cluster computer and NEC SX-6/4B, high bandwidth, vector supercomputer platforms within the Nanomodelling Supercomputing Laboratory.

He is an associate member of the Institute of Physics, a student member of the Optical Society of America, a member of the Applied Computational Electromagnetics Society (ACES), and a member of the Technical Chamber ("TEE") of Greece. He serves as a referee for several NPG, AIP, OSA, IEEE, IET, World Scientific, Taylor & Francis and EM Academy journals and proceedings.

Research Interests

i) Metamaterials, plasmonics and photonic crystals;

ii) 'Slow'- and 'stopped'-light applications and physics;

iii) Computational photonics: Finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method, fully-vectorial finite-difference frequency-domain (FV-FDFD) mode-solvers;

iv) Waveguide theory;

v) Finite-difference theory: 'Exact' and 'nonstandard' formulations;

vi) Solid-state physics: Travelling-wave heterojunction photodetectors/phototransistors (TW-HPDs/HPTs).

Publications

 1) D. P. Aryal, K. L. Tsakmakidis, and O. Hess, "Complete bandgap switching in photonic opals," New J. Phys. 11, 073011 (2009).

2) E. I. Kirby, J. M. Hamm, K. L. Tsakmakidis, and O. Hess, "FDTD analysis of slow light propagation in negative-refractive-index waveguides, J. Opt. A: Pure Appl. Opt. 11, 114027 (2009).

3) J. J. H. Cook, K. L. Tsakmakidis, and O Hess, "Ultralow-loss optical diamagnetism in silver nanoforests," J. Opt. A: Pure Appl. Opt. 11, 114026 (2009).

4) K. L. Tsakmakidis, A. D. Boardman, and O. Hess, "Can light be stopped in realistic metamaterials? Reply," Nature (London) 455, pp. E11-E12 (2008).

5) O.Hess and K. L. Tsakmakidis, "Stopping light in metamaterials: the trapped rainbow," SPIE Newsroom Technical Article (Nanotechnology), DOI: 10.1117/2.1200806.1163 (2008) (invited).

6) K. L. Tsakmakidis and O. Hess, "Optics: Watch your back," Nature (London) 451, p. 27 (2008) (invited).

7) D. P. Aryal, K. L. Tsakmakidis, C. Jamois, and O. Hess, "Complete and robust bandgap switching in double-inverse-opal photonic crystals," Appl. Phys. Lett. 92, 011109, 2008, and Virtual Journal of Nanoscale Science & Technology 17 (2), 14^th Jan., 2008.

8) K. L. Tsakmakidis, A. D. Boardman, and O. Hess, "'Trapped rainbow' storage of light in metamaterials," Nature (London) 450, pp. 397-401 (2007).

9) F. Y. Gardes, K. L. Tsakmakidis, D. Thompson, G. T. Reed, G. Z. Mashanovich, O. Hess, and D. Avitabile, "Micrometer size depletion-type photonic modulator in Silicon On Insulator," Opt. Express 15, pp. 5879-5884, (2007).

10) K. L. Tsakmakidis, A. Klaedtke, D. P. Aryal, C. Jamois, and O. Hess, "Single-mode operation in the slow-light regime using oscillatory waves in generalized left-handed heterostructures," Appl. Phys. Lett. 89, 201103 (2006).

11) K. L. Tsakmakidis, C. Hermann, A. Klaedtke, C. Jamois, and O. Hess, "Surface plasmon polaritons in generalized slab heterostructures with negative permittivity and permeability," Phys. Rev. B 73, 085104 (2006).

12) K. L. Tsakmakidis, C. Hermann, A. Klaedtke, C. Jamois, and O. Hess, "Systematic modal analysis of 3D dielectric waveguides using conventional and high accuracy nonstandard FDTD algorithms," IEEE Photon. Technol. Lett. 17, pp. 2598-2600 (2005).

International Conferences & Topical Meetings:

1) J. J. Cook, K. L. Tsakmakidis, and O. Hess, "Optical magnetism in metal nanoforests," in Magnetic Phenomena; Metamaterials: Fundamentals and Applications II; SPIE Optics and Photonics 2009 (San Diego, California, USA, 2009) (invited).

2) K. L. Tsakmakidis and O. Hess, "The 'trapped rainbow' effect: Slow broadband waves through negative interfacial phase shifts," in Conference on Electrical, Transport and Optical Properties of Inhomogeneous Media (ETOPIM) 09 (Crete, Greece, 2009) (invited).

3) E. Kirby, K. L. Tsakmakidis, and O. Hess, "The trapped rainbow effect for broadband slow light and light storage," in Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics (CLEO); European Quantum Electronics Conference (EQEC) (Munich, Germany, 2009) (invited).

4) K. L. Tsakmakidis and O. Hess, "Ultraslow and stored light in metamaterials: New developments and verifications," in Slow and Fast Light in Plasmonics and Metamaterials; Advances in Slow and Fast Light II; OPTO 2009; SPIE Photonics West 2009 (San Jose, California, USA, 2009) (invited).

5) O. Hess and K. L. Tsakmakidis, "Slow and stopped light in metamaterials," in Proceedings of the 8^th International Conference on Numerical Simulation of Optoelectronic Devices, NUSOD '08 (IEEE Lasers and Electro-Optics Society, Nottingham, UK, 2008) (invited).

6) O. Hess and K. L. Tsakmakidis, "Slow and stopped light in metamaterials: the trapped rainbow," in SPIE Photonics Europe 2008, Metamaterials Conference (SPIE Europe, Strasbourg, France, 2008), paper 6987-1 (keynote).

7) K. L. Tsakmakidis, D. P. Aryal, and O. Hess, "Accurate modal analysis of 3D dielectric waveguides using the nonstandard FDTD method," in 24^th International Review of Progress in Applied Computational Electromagnetics (ACES 2008), Nonstandard FDTD methods (ACES, Niagara Falls, Canada, 2008) (invited).

8) K. L. Tsakmakidis and O. Hess, "Slow light in metamaterial heterostructures," in SPIE Photonics West 2008 Conference, Advances in Slow and Fast Light (SPIE, San Jose, California, USA, 2008) (invited).

9) K. L. Tsakmakidis and O. Hess, "Slow light in negative-index waveguide-heterostructures," in SPIE NanoScience and Engineering 2007 Symposium, Photonic Metamaterials Conference (SPIE, San Diego, California, USA, 2007) (invited).

Book Chapters:

1) D. P. Aryal, K. L. Tsakmakidis, and O. Hess, Photonic crystals: From fundamentals to functional photonic opals, ch. 8 in Tutorials in Complex Photonic Media, M. A. Noginov, et al. (eds.), pp. 179-228 (SPIE Press, Bellingham, WA, 2009).