Tunable fishnet metamaterials infiltrated by liquid crystals

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates how infiltrating fishnet metamaterials with liquid crystals enables tunable optical properties, allowing switching between positive and negative refractive indices through external control.

Contribution

It introduces a method to dynamically tune fishnet metamaterials using liquid crystals, highlighting the impact of liquid crystal reorientation on optical response.

Findings

Liquid crystal infiltration enables optical tuning of fishnet metamaterials.

Reorientation of liquid crystals shifts the cut-off wavelength.

Switchable positive and negative refractive indices achieved.

Abstract

We analyze numerically the optical response and effective macroscopic parameters of fishnet metamaterials infiltrated with a nematic liquid crystal. We show that even a small amount of liquid crystal can provide tuning of the structures due to reorientation of the liquid crystal director. This enables switchable optical metamaterials, where the refractive index can be switched from positive to negative by an external field. This tuning is primarily determined by the shift of the cut-off wavelength of the holes, with only a small influence due to the change in plasmon dispersion