Electrical Tuning of Plasmonic Conducting Polymer Nanoantennas

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates electrically tunable nanoantennas made from conducting polymers, enabling dynamic control of optical properties for advanced nanooptics and metasurface applications.

Contribution

It introduces the first electrically tunable conducting polymer nanoantennas, showing gradual optical tuning via modulation of charge carrier density and mobility.

Findings

Successful on/off switching of polymer nanoantennas.

Gradual electrical tuning of nanooptical response achieved.

Potential for dynamic metasurfaces and smart optical devices.

Abstract

Nanostructures of conventional metals offer manipulation of light at the nanoscale but are limited to static behavior due to their fixed material properties. To develop the next frontier of dynamic nanooptics and metasurfaces, we utilize the redox-tunable optical properties of conducting polymers, which were recently shown to be capable of sustaining plasmons in their most conducting oxidized state. Using nanodisks of poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene:sulfate) (PEDOT:Sulf) as a model system, we present the first electrically tunable conducting polymer nanooptical antennas. In addition to repeated on/off switching of the polymeric nanoantennas, we demonstrate the possibility for gradual electrical tuning of their nanooptical response, which was found to be related to the modulation of both density and mobility of the mobile polaronic charge carriers in the polymer. The presented concept takes important steps towards electrically tunable metasurfaces with truly dynamic optical nanoantenna pixels, with not only varying farfield but also tunable nearfield. The work paves the way for applications ranging from tunable flat metaoptics to adaptable smart windows.