Negative refraction in Al:ZnO/ZnO metamaterial in the near-infrared

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates negative refraction in a near-infrared metamaterial made from aluminum-doped zinc oxide, offering a promising alternative to noble metals for optical devices.

Contribution

It introduces a novel near-infrared metamaterial using heavily-doped oxide semiconductors, specifically aluminum-doped zinc oxide, for improved optical performance and fabrication.

Findings

Negative refraction observed in the near-infrared range.

Successful design and fabrication of the metamaterial device.

Use of aluminum-doped zinc oxide as a functional alternative to noble metals.

Abstract

Noble metals such as gold and silver are the primary metallic building blocks of metamaterial devices. Making subwavelength-sized structural elements from these metals seriously limits the optical performance of a device, however, and complicates the manufacturing process of nearly all metamaterial devices in the optical wavelength range. As an alternative to noble metals, we propose to use heavily-doped oxide semiconductors that offer both functional and fabrication advantages in the near-infrared. In this letter, we report an experimental demonstration of negative refraction in a near-infrared metamaterial device that is designed and fabricated using aluminum-doped zinc oxide.