Electro-optical switching by liquid-crystal controlled metasurfaces

Opt Express. 2013 Apr 8;21(7):8879-85. doi: 10.1364/OE.21.008879.

Abstract

We study the optical response of a metamaterial surface created by a lattice of split-ring resonators covered with a nematic liquid crystal and demonstrate millisecond timescale switching between electric and magnetic resonances of the metasurface. This is achieved due to a high sensitivity of liquid-crystal molecular reorientation to the symmetry of the metasurface as well as to the presence of a bias electric field. Our experiments are complemented by numerical simulations of the liquid-crystal reorientation.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Computer Simulation
  • Computer-Aided Design
  • Electromagnetic Fields
  • Equipment Design
  • Equipment Failure Analysis
  • Light
  • Liquid Crystals / chemistry*
  • Liquid Crystals / radiation effects*
  • Manufactured Materials*
  • Models, Chemical*
  • Models, Theoretical
  • Molecular Conformation / radiation effects
  • Refractometry / instrumentation*