Optical metasurfaces are two-dimensional optical elements composed of dense arrays of subwavelength optical antennas and afford on-demand manipulation of the basic properties of light waves. Following the pioneering works on active metasurfaces capable of modulating wave amplitude, there is now a growing interest to dynamically control other fundamental properties of light. Here, we present metasurfaces that facilitate electrical tuning of the reflection phase and polarization properties. To realize these devices, we leverage the properties of actively controlled plasmonic antennas and fundamental insights provided by coupled mode theory. Indium-tin-oxide is embedded into gap-plasmon resonator-antennas as it offers electrically tunable optical properties. By judiciously controlling the resonant properties of the antennas from under- to overcoupling regimes, we experimentally demonstrate tuning of the reflection phase over 180°. This work opens up new design strategies for active metasurfaces for displacement measurements and tunable waveplates.

The generation of surface plasmon vortices with arbitrary higher order vortex topological charges with novel plasmonic vortex lens is experimentally demonstrated. It is shown that the polarization sensitivity of the plasmonic vortex lens can be utilized for the dynamic switching of the surface plasmon vortices with different topological charges. A simple algebraic rule related to the vortex topological charge change in the dynamic switching is formulated, and its proof is provided with theory and experiment. The synthesis and dynamic switching of higher order surface plasmon vortices have profound potential in optical trapping, optical data storage, and other related fields.

No abstract

Enhancing and spectrally controlling light absorption is of great practical and fundamental importance. In optoelectronic devices consisting of layered semiconductors and metals, absorption has traditionally been manipulated with the help of Fabry-Pérot resonances. Even further control over the spectral light absorption properties of thin films has been achieved by patterning them into dense arrays of subwavelength resonant structures to form metafilms. As the next logical step, we demonstrate electrical control over light absorption in metafilms constructed from dense arrays of actively tunable plasmonic cavities. This control is achieved by embedding indium tin oxide (ITO) into these cavities. ITO affords significant tuning of its optical properties by means of electrically-induced carrier depletion and accumulation. We demonstrate that particularly large changes in the reflectance from such metafilms (up to 15% P) can be achieved by operating the ITO in the epsilon-near-zero (ENZ) frequency regime where its electrical permittivity changes sign from negative to positive values.

The success of semiconductor electronics is built on the creation of compact, low-power switching elements that offer routing, logic, and memory functions. The availability of nanoscale optical switches could have a similarly transformative impact on the development of dynamic and programmable metasurfaces, optical neural networks, and quantum information processing. Phase change materials are uniquely suited to enable their creation as they offer high-speed electrical switching between amorphous and crystalline states with notably different optical properties. Their high refractive index has also been harnessed to fashion them into compact optical antennas. Here, we take the next important step by realizing electrically-switchable phase change antennas and metasurfaces that offer strong, reversible, non-volatile, multi-phase switching and spectral tuning of light scattering in the visible and near-infrared spectral ranges. Their successful implementation relies on a careful joint thermal and optical optimization of the antenna elements that comprise an Ag strip that simultaneously serves as a plasmonic resonator and a miniature heating stage.