Active tuning of all-dielectric metasurfaces.
All-dielectric metasurfaces provide a powerful platform for highly efficient flat optical devices, owing to their strong electric and magnetic dipolar response accompanied by negligible losses at near-infrared frequencies. Here we experimentally demonstrate dynamic tuning of electric and magnetic resonances in all-dielectric silicon nanodisk metasurfaces in the telecom spectral range based on the temperature-dependent refractive-index change of a nematic liquid crystal. We achieve a maximum resonance tuning range of 40 nm and a pronounced change in the transmittance intensity up to a factor of 5. Strongly different tuning rates are observed for the electric and the magnetic response, which allows for dynamically adjusting the spectral mode separation. Furthermore, we experimentally investigate the influence of the anisotropic (temperature-dependent) dielectric environment provided by the liquid crystal on both the electric and magnetic resonances. We demonstrate that the phase transition of the liquid crystal from its nematic to its isotropic phase can be used to break the symmetry of the optical metasurface response. As such, our approach allows for spectral tuning of electric and magnetic resonances of all-dielectric metasurfaces as well as switching of the anisotropy of the optical response of the device.
†Nonlinear Physics Centre and Centre for Ultrahigh Bandwidth Devices for Optical Systems (CUDOS), Research School of Physics and Engineering, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia.
Jürgen
J
Sautter
†Nonlinear Physics Centre and Centre for Ultrahigh Bandwidth Devices for Optical Systems (CUDOS), Research School of Physics and Engineering, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia.
Isabelle
I
Staude
†Nonlinear Physics Centre and Centre for Ultrahigh Bandwidth Devices for Optical Systems (CUDOS), Research School of Physics and Engineering, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia.
Manuel
M
Decker
†Nonlinear Physics Centre and Centre for Ultrahigh Bandwidth Devices for Optical Systems (CUDOS), Research School of Physics and Engineering, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia.
Evgenia
E
Rusak
†Nonlinear Physics Centre and Centre for Ultrahigh Bandwidth Devices for Optical Systems (CUDOS), Research School of Physics and Engineering, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia.
Dragomir N
DN
Neshev
‡Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies, Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87185, United States.
Igal
I
Brener
†Nonlinear Physics Centre and Centre for Ultrahigh Bandwidth Devices for Optical Systems (CUDOS), Research School of Physics and Engineering, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia.
Yuri S
YS
Kivshar
high-permittivity nanoparticles; liquid crystals; metasurfaces; nanostructures; optical anisotropy; tunable metamaterials