Switchable Hyperbolic Metamaterials With Magnetic Control

TL;DR

This paper introduces a switchable hyperbolic metamaterial that can reversibly change its dispersion properties from hyperbolic to circular using magnetic control, enabling tunable optical functionalities.

Contribution

It presents a simple, reversible magnetic control mechanism for switching hyperbolic dispersion in a layered metamaterial structure.

Findings

Hyperbolic dispersion is achieved via negative effective permeability.

Dispersion can be switched off to revert to circular dispersion.

The switching mechanism is reversible and controllable by magnetic fields.

Abstract

A switchable hyperbolic material (SHM) is investigated, with which one can turn on or off the hyperbolic dispersion of the material via magnetic control. The SHM has simple structure, with a one-dimensional periodic stacking of dielectric layer and gyromagnetic layer. The hyperbolic dispersion of SHM is due to the negative effective permeability of gyromagnetic layers, and it can be transformed into a regular circular dispersion when the d.c. magnetic field is switched off. This switchable dispersion transition is reversible, which may have great potential applications in many fields.