Origami Metawall: Mechanically Controlled Absorption and Deflection of Light

Min Li; Lian Shen; Liqiao Jing; Su Xu; Bin Zheng; Xiao Lin; Yihao Yang; Zuojia Wang; Hongsheng Chen

doi:10.1002/advs.201901434

Origami Metawall: Mechanically Controlled Absorption and Deflection of Light

Adv Sci (Weinh). 2019 Oct 29;6(23):1901434. doi: 10.1002/advs.201901434. eCollection 2019 Dec.

Authors

Min Li^{1

2}, Lian Shen^{1

2}, Liqiao Jing^{1

2

3}, Su Xu⁴, Bin Zheng^{1

2}, Xiao Lin⁵, Yihao Yang⁵, Zuojia Wang⁶, Hongsheng Chen^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Interdisciplinary Center for Quantum Information State Key Laboratory of Modern Optical Instrumentation College of Information Science and Electronic Engineering Zhejiang University Hangzhou 310027 China.
² Key Laboratory of Advanced Micro/Nano Electronic Devices & Smart Systems of Zhejiang The Electromagnetics Academy at Zhejiang University Zhejiang University Hangzhou 310027 China.
³ Department of Physics Massachusetts Institute of Technology Cambridge MA 02139 USA.
⁴ State Key Laboratory of Integrated Optoelectronics College of Electronic Science and Engineering Jilin University 2699 Qianjin Street Changchun 130012 China.
⁵ Division of Physics and Applied Physics School of Physical and Mathematical Sciences Nanyang Technological University 21 Nanyang Link Singapore 637371 Singapore.
⁶ School of Information Science and Engineering Shandong University Qingdao 266237 China.

Abstract

Metamaterials/metasurfaces, which have subwavelength resonating unit cells (i.e., meta-atoms), can enable unprecedented control over the flow of light. Despite their significant progress, achieving dynamical control of both energy and momentum of light remains a challenge. Here, a mechanically tunable metawall capable of either absorbing light energy or modulating light momentum, by incorporating the magnetic meta-atoms into a 3D printed origami grating, is theoretically designed and experimentally realized. Through mechanical stretching or compressing of the Miura-ori pattern, the function of metawall can transit from an absorber, a mirror, to a negative reflector. Particularly, the continuously geometric deformation of the Miura-ori lattice is a promising approach to compensate the angular dispersion in gradient metasurfaces. Considering the prominent mechanical properties and strong deformation abilities of origami structures, the findings may open an alternative avenue toward lightweight and deployable metadevices with diversified and continuously alterable electromagnetic properties.

Keywords: metamaterials; optical transition; origami; reconfigurable.