[22] Shalaev proposed and demonstrated the first optical MM that exhibits negative index of refraction and the nanostructures that show artificial magnetism across the entire visible spectrum.

[27]) He made important contributions to active, nonlinear and tunable metamaterials, which enable new ways of controlling light and accessing new regimes of enhanced light-matter interactions.

[37][38] Shalaev also made seminal contributions to two dimensional, flat metamaterials – metasurfaces[39] – that introduce abrupt changes to the phase of light at a single interface via coupling to nanoscale optical antennas.

[40][41][42][43][44] He realized extremely compact flat lens,[42] ultra-thin hologram[43] and record-small circular dichroism spectrometer[44] compatible with planar optical circuitry.

[2][47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57] He predicted the highly localized optical modes -'hot spots' - for fractals and percolating films which were later experimentally demonstrated by Shalaev in collaboration with the Moskovits and Boccara groups.

[23]−[26][28]−[37] Owing to the theory and experimental approaches developed in the area of random composites, optical metamaterials have quickly become a mature research field surprisingly rich in new physics.

[74] In collaboration with the Faccio group,[75] Shalaev demonstrated ultrafast, strongly-enhanced nonlinear responses in TCOs that possess an extremely low (close to zero) linear refractive index – the so-called epsilon-near-zero regime.

[76][77][78][79][80] Independently, the Boyd group obtained equally remarkable results in a TCO material,[81] demonstrating that low-index TCOs hold a promise for novel nonlinear optics.