Random access actuation of nanowire grid metamaterial.
While metamaterials offer engineered static optical properties, future artificial media with dynamic random-access control over shape and position of meta-molecules will provide arbitrary control of light propagation. The simplest example of such a reconfigurable metamaterial is a nanowire grid metasurface with subwavelength wire spacing. Recently we demonstrated computationally that such a metadevice with individually controlled wire positions could be used as dynamic diffraction grating, beam steering module and tunable focusing element. Here we report on the nanomembrane realization of such a nanowire grid metasurface constructed from individually addressable plasmonic chevron nanowires with a 230 nm × 100 nm cross-section, which consist of gold and silicon nitride. The active structure of the metadevice consists of 15 nanowires each 18 μm long and is fabricated by a combination of electron beam lithography and ion beam milling. It is packaged as a microchip device where the nanowires can be individually actuated by control currents via differential thermal expansion.
Optoelectronics Research Centre and Centre for Photonic Metamaterials, University of Southampton, Highfield, Southampton, SO17 1BJ, UK.
Pablo
P
Cencillo-Abad
Jun-Yu
JY
Ou
Eric
E
Plum
João
J
Valente
Nikolay I
NI
Zheludev