Electrically tunable liquid crystal plasmonic metamaterials

Abstract

We experimentally demonstrate an efficient electrical modulation and control of the near-IR response of liquid crystal (LC) loaded plasmonic metamaterials by exploiting micro-scale volume and (for the first time) nano-scale in-plane LC-switching modes. We also show that in the resulting hybrid optical cell the metamaterial nano-structure can replace all three essential components of an LC device: (i) LC-alignment layer; (ii) transparent electrode and (iii) polarizer; making the hybrid cell more compact than the conventional LC devices and easier to integrate into plasmonic and nano-photonic circuits. The relative ease of on-demand resonant band engineering (i.e. colours) and tailoring reflection/refraction phenomena in metamaterials is particularly appealing for application in emerging, high-resolution display technologies including near-to-eye and virtual retina displays, holographic and 3D imaging

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Identifiers

ORCID for J-Y. Ou: orcid.org/0000-0001-8028-6130

ORCID for N.I. Zheludev: orcid.org/0000-0002-1013-6636

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