Open Access
27 September 2024 Electrically tunable optical metasurfaces
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Abstract

Optical metasurfaces have emerged as a groundbreaking technology in photonics, offering unparalleled control over light–matter interactions at the subwavelength scale with ultrathin surface nanostructures and thereby giving birth to flat optics. While most reported optical metasurfaces are static, featuring well-defined optical responses determined by their compositions and configurations set during fabrication, dynamic optical metasurfaces with reconfigurable functionalities by applying thermal, electrical, or optical stimuli have become increasingly more in demand and moved to the forefront of research and development. Among various types of dynamically controlled metasurfaces, electrically tunable optical metasurfaces have shown great promise due to their fast response time, low power consumption, and compatibility with existing electronic control systems, offering unique possibilities for dynamic tunability of light–matter interactions via electrical modulation. Here we provide a comprehensive overview of the state-of-the-art design methodologies and technologies explored in this rapidly evolving field. Our work delves into the fundamental principles of electrical modulation, various materials and mechanisms enabling tunability, and representative applications for active light-field manipulation, including optical amplitude and phase modulators, tunable polarization optics and wavelength filters, and dynamic wave-shaping optics, including holograms and displays. The review terminates with our perspectives on the future development of electrically triggered optical metasurfaces.

CC BY: © The Authors. Published by CLP and SPIE under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Distribution or reproduction of this work in whole or in part requires full attribution of the original publication, including its DOI.
Fei Ding, Chao Meng, and Sergey I. Bozhevolnyi "Electrically tunable optical metasurfaces," Photonics Insights 3(3), R07 (27 September 2024). https://doi.org/10.3788/PI.2024.R07
Received: 30 June 2024; Accepted: 3 September 2024; Published: 27 September 2024
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KEYWORDS
Modulation

Gold

Reflection

Switching

Plasmonics

Graphene

Design

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