Electro-optical control in a plasmonic metamaterial hybridised with a liquid-crystal cell

Abstract

We experimentally demonstrate efficient electro-optical control in an active nano-structured plasmonic metamaterial hybridised with a liquid-crystal cell. The hybridisation was achieved by simultaneously replacing the polarizer, transparent electrode and molecular alignment layer of the liquid-crystal cell with the metamaterial nano-structure. With the control signal of only 7 V we have achieved a fivefold hysteresis-free modulation of metamaterial transmission at the wavelength of 1.55 µm.

All-dielectric phase-change reconfigurable metasurface

“…1 Phase-change materials, including chalcogenides, [2][3][4][5] vanadium dioxide, [6][7][8] gallium, 9 and liquid crystals, [10][11][12] have featured prominently in this evolution. We now show that the chalcogenides offer a uniquely flexible platform for the realization of non-volatile, optically-switchable alldielectric metamaterials.…”

Engineered pixels using active plasmonic holograms with liquid crystals

“…However, these static holograms do not provide any modulation capability post-fabrication. Integration of LCs with metallic nanostructures has been previously demonstrated [18][19][20][21][22][23], however, these devices mainly provide the functionality for tunable optical filtering in the form of spectrally shifting transmission peaks and operate outside of the visible frequency range in the near to mid-infrared region.…”

Multiscale models of colloidal dispersion of particles in nematic liquid crystals

“…For example, gold nanoparticle inclusions [8] have a considerable effect on the liquid crystal hosts: they lower the nematic-isotropic transition temperature [9], increase the switching speed [10], and introduce tunability of the dielectric anisotropy [11]. More recently, gold particles [12,13] and layered structures [14] have been studied for their applications to the creation of tunable metamaterials.…”