As the sophistication of electromagnetic metamaterials is increasing, there is a growing number of quantum-mechanical phenomena that can be effectively emulated by these new emerging structures. One such phenomenon is the Fano Resonance that was originally observed in atomic systems and later in the solid state. In the context of metamaterials, Fano resonances provide an effective method of radiation lifetime engineering that enables ultra-sharp spectral lines and extremely high electromagnetic field enhancements. The other related phenomenon is the so-called Electromagnetically Induced Transparency. Both phenomena are observed in complex metamaterials supporting several resonances with vastly different radiative lifetimes. The five invited talks in this session will examine the fundamental physics behind these multi-resonant phenomena, such as nonlinear effects and the effects of disorder, as well as several exciting applications such as ultra-sensitive linear and nonlinear spectroscopies. The universality of Fano Resonances across the entire electromagnetic spectrum will be highlighted in this Session by drawing on the examples ranging from optical to microwave physics.

Averaging of the Maxwell equations (MEs), i.e., the transition between the microscopic MEs to their macroscopic counterparts, is one of the main steps in electrodynamics. In spite of the fundamental importance of the averaging procedure, it is extremely rare presented in university courses and respective books; up to now there is no established consensus about how the averaging procedure has to be performed. The main goal of this discussion forum is to start creating a common basis for discussion of the mentioned above problem. Another goal is to establish the averaging procedure for the metamaterials, which is rather close to the case of compound materials but should include artificial magnetic response due to its inclusions shape and size. It is expected that the discussion will help us to elaborate an agreement about some basic principles for the averaging procedure (irrespective to the type of materials) which have to be satisfied. Any newly developed homogenization model has to correlate with these basic principles. Apparently, in case of absence of this evidence of correlation of a particular model with the basic principles the model could not be accepted as a creditable one. It is also expected that the discussion will help us to set more coherence in activities of different groups in their efforts to establish the averaging procedure for metamaterials. We start from the consideration of bulk materials, which means in vast majority of cases that we consider propagation of an electromagnetic wave far from the interfaces, where the eigenwave in the media is already formed and stabilized. In the second part we set a basic structure for discussion about boundary conditions and layered metamaterials. The discussion forum organizers have prepared some preliminary material for discussion, which can be found as an Arxiv preprint at http://arxiv.org/abs/1106.3835

Superconducting metamaterials have recently emerged to offer a radically new paradigm for sensing, data processing and information technologies. They will provide a dramatic reduction of losses, accompanied by access to the extreme sensitivity of the superconducting state to external stimuli and the exceptional nonlinearity of superconductors enabling low energy switching. Negative dielectric constants and dominant kinetic resistance also make superconductors intriguing plasmonic media. Moreover, a fundamental change in the nature of information carriers is produced by superconductivity: in some implementations it will be possible to switch from the classical excitations of conventional plasmonic and metamaterial devices to quantum excitations underpinned by flux quantization and quantum interference effects.

The session will highlight the state of the art and recent advances in the emerging field of magnonics, with a special attention to the novel opportunities arising from the possibility to tailor and control spin wave resonances in nano-scale magnetic structures for the research fields of magnonic and electromagnetic metamaterials and associated technologies.