We demonstrate electrical tuning of the spectral response of a Mie-resonant dielectric metasurface consisting of silicon nanodisks embedded into liquid crystals. We use the reorientation of nematic liquid crystals in a moderate applied electric field to alter the anisotropic permittivity tensor around the metasurface. By switching a control voltage "on" and "off," we induce a large spectral shift of the metasurface resonances, resulting in an absolute transmission modulation of up to 75%. Our experimental demonstration of voltage control of dielectric metasurfaces paves the way for new types of electrically tunable metadevices, including dynamic displays and holograms.

Mie-resonant dielectric metasurfaces offer comprehensive opportunities for the manipulation of light fields with high efficiency. Additionally, various strategies for the dynamic tuning of the optical response of such metasurfaces were demonstrated, making them important candidates for reconfigurable optical devices. However, dynamic control of the light-emission properties of active Mie-resonant dielectric metasurfaces by an external control parameter has not been demonstrated so far. Here, we experimentally demonstrate the dynamic tuning of spontaneous emission from a Mie-resonant dielectric metasurface that is situated on a fluorescent substrate and embedded into a liquid crystal cell. By switching the liquid crystal from the nematic state to the isotropic state via control of the cell temperature, we induce a shift of the spectral position of the metasurface resonances. This results in a change of the local photonic density of states, which, in turn, governs the enhancement of spontaneous emission from the substrate. Specifically, we observe spectral tuning of both the electric and magnetic dipole resonances, resulting in a 2-fold increase of the emission intensity at λ ≈ 900 nm. Our results demonstrate a viable strategy to realize flat tunable light sources based on dielectric metasurfaces.

We study light emission from square arrays of Mie-resonant silicon nanoantennas situated on a fluorescent glass substrate. When the spectral positions of the silicon nanoantennas' resonances overlap with the intrinsic emission from the glass, the emission is selectively enhanced for certain spectral and spatial frequencies detemined by the design of the nanoantenna array. We measure the emission spectra of the coupled system for a systematic variation of the nanoantenna geometry, showing that the spectral maximum of the emission coincides with the antenna resonance positions observed in linear-optical transmittance spectra. Furthermore, we study the directionality of the emission by back focal plane imaging and numerical calculations based on the Fourier modal method and the reciprocity principle. We observe that the nanoantenna array induces a reshaping of the resonantly enhanced emission in the air half-space into a narrow lobe directed out of the substrate plane. This reshaping is explained by coherent scattering of the emitted light in the nanoantenna array. Our results demonstrate that combining emission enhancement by magnetic dipolar Mie-type resonances of silicon nanoantennas with diffractive coupling in the periodic arrangement allows for the creation of flat light sources with tailored spectral and directional emission properties.

Nonlinear optical devices and their implementation into modern nanophotonic architectures are constrained by their usually moderate nonlinear response. Recently, epsilon-near-zero (ENZ) materials have been found to have a strong optical nonlinearity, which can be enhanced through the use of cavities or nano-structuring. Here, we study the pump dependent properties of the plasmon resonance in the ENZ region in a thin layer of indium tin oxide (ITO). Exciting this mode using the Kretschmann-Raether configuration, we study reflection switching properties of a 60 nm layer close to the resonant plasmon frequency. We demonstrate a thermal switching mechanism, which results in a shift in the plasmon resonance frequency of 20 THz for a TM pump intensity of 70 GW cm−2. For degenerate pump and probe frequencies, we highlight an additional two-beam coupling contribution, not previously isolated in ENZ nonlinear optics studies, which leads to an overall pump induced change in reflection from 1% to 45%.

Tunable dielectric metasurfaces able to manipulate visible light with high efficiency are promising for applications in displays, reconfigurable optical components, beam steering, and spatial light modulation. Infiltration of dielectric metasurfaces with nematic liquid crystals (LCs) is an attractive tuning approach, which is highly compatible with existing industrial platforms for optical and electronic devices. Here, we demonstrate electrically tunable transparent displays based on nematic LC-infiltrated tunable dielectric metasurfaces at visible frequencies. Importantly, the technique of photoalignment of LCs is adopted to improve the LC prealignment quality and thus the tuning accuracy and contrast in the visible. By applying a voltage across the infiltrated metasurface cell, we observe resonance shifts that are more than twice larger than their line width. We track the spectral shifts of the electric and magnetic dipole resonances as they move into and out of the so-called Huygens' regime of high transparency originating from spectrally overlapping electric and magnetic dipole resonances. Furthermore, we realize a switchable metasurface display with a measured modulation depth of 53% at 669 nm operation wavelength for an applied voltage of 20 V. The novel LC tuning platform demonstrated in our work may lead to the development of next-generation LC display devices that are able to overcome current limitations of minimal pixel size and speed of operation.