title: Theory and modeling of electrically tunable metamaterial devices using inter-subband transitions in semiconductor quantum wells.
abstract: In this paper, we propose a new and versatile mechanism for electrical tuning of planar metamaterials: strong coupling of metamaterial resonances to engineered intersubband transitions that can be tuned through the application of an electrical bias. We present the general formalism that allows calculating the permittivity tensor for intersubband transitions in generic semiconductor heterostructures and we study numerically the specific case of coupling and tuning metamaterials in the thermal infrared through coupling to biased GaAs semiconductor quantum wells. This tuning mechanism can be scaled from the visible to the far infrared by the proper choice of metamaterials and semiconductor heterostructures.
authors.affiliation: Center for Integrated Nanotechnology, Sandia National Laboratories P.O. Box 5800, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87185, USA.
authors.forename: Alon
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gabbay
authors.forename: Igal
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Brener
mesh_terms: D003198:Computer Simulation; D017076:Computer-Aided Design; D004574:Electromagnetic Fields; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D008027:Light; D008420:Manufactured Materials; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D011789:Quantum Theory; D012031:Refractometry / Q000379:methods*; D012542:Scattering, Radiation; D012666:Semiconductors