Tunable fishnet metamaterials infiltrated by liquid crystals

We analyze numerically the optical response and effective macroscopic parameters of fishnet metamaterials infiltrated with a nematic liquid crystal. We show that even a small amount of liquid crystal can provide tuning of the structures due to reorientation of the liquid crystal director. This enabl...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Applied physics letters 2010-05, Vol.96 (19), p.193103-193103-3
Main Authors: Minovich, Alexander, Neshev, Dragomir N., Powell, David A., Shadrivov, Ilya V., Kivshar, Yuri S.
Format: Article
Language:English
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Summary:We analyze numerically the optical response and effective macroscopic parameters of fishnet metamaterials infiltrated with a nematic liquid crystal. We show that even a small amount of liquid crystal can provide tuning of the structures due to reorientation of the liquid crystal director. This enables switchable optical metamaterials, where the refractive index can be switched from positive to negative by an external field. This tuning is primarily determined by the shift in the cut-off wavelength of the holes, with only a small influence due to the change in plasmon dispersion.
ISSN:0003-6951
1077-3118
DOI:10.1063/1.3427429