TY - JOUR
T1 - Active analog tuning of the phase of light in the visible regime by bismuth-based metamaterials
AU - Garcia-Pardo, Marina
AU - Nieto-Pinero, Eva
AU - Petford-Long, Amanda K.
AU - Serna, Rosalia
AU - Toudert, Johann
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was supported by Spanish grants RTI2018-096498-B-I00, Funder Id: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/100014440 (MCIU/AEI/FEDER, UE) and LINKA20044, Funder Id: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100003339 (CSIC). AKPL is grateful to the National Science Foundation under Collaborative Grant #DMR 1600837, Funder Id: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/100000001 for funding. Use of the Center for Nanoscale Materials, an Office of Science user facility, was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, under Contract No. DE-AC02-06CH11357, Funder Id: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/100006151 . E.N.P. acknowledges funding from Comunidad de Madrid (Spain), Garantia Juvenil contract PEJ-2018-AI/IND-10888.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 Rosalia Serna, Johann Toudert et al., published by De Gruyter/Berlin/Boston.
PY - 2020/4/1
Y1 - 2020/4/1
N2 - The active and analog tuning of the phase of light by metamaterials is needed to boost the switching performance of photonic devices. However, demonstrations of this type of tuning in the pivotal visible spectral region are still scarce. Herein, we report the active analog tuning of the phase of visible light reflected by a bismuth (Bi)-based metamaterial, enabled by a reversible solid-liquid transition. This metamaterial, fabricated by following a lithography-free approach, consists of two-dimensional assemblies of polydisperse plasmonic Bi nanostructures embedded in a refractory and transparent aluminum oxide matrix. The analog tuning of the phase is achieved by the controlled heating of the metamaterial to melt a fraction of the nanostructures. A maximum tuning of 320° (1.8 π) is observed upon the complete melting of the nanostructures at 230°C. This tuning is reversible by cooling to 25°C. In addition, it presents a wide hysteretic character due to liquid Bi undercooling. This enables the phase achieved by this analog approach to remain stable over a broad temperature range upon cooling and until re-solidification occurs around 100°C. Therefore, Bi-based metamaterials are endowed with analog optical memory capabilities, which are appealing for a wide range of applications, including optical data storage with enhanced information density or bistable photonic switching with a tunable "on" state.
AB - The active and analog tuning of the phase of light by metamaterials is needed to boost the switching performance of photonic devices. However, demonstrations of this type of tuning in the pivotal visible spectral region are still scarce. Herein, we report the active analog tuning of the phase of visible light reflected by a bismuth (Bi)-based metamaterial, enabled by a reversible solid-liquid transition. This metamaterial, fabricated by following a lithography-free approach, consists of two-dimensional assemblies of polydisperse plasmonic Bi nanostructures embedded in a refractory and transparent aluminum oxide matrix. The analog tuning of the phase is achieved by the controlled heating of the metamaterial to melt a fraction of the nanostructures. A maximum tuning of 320° (1.8 π) is observed upon the complete melting of the nanostructures at 230°C. This tuning is reversible by cooling to 25°C. In addition, it presents a wide hysteretic character due to liquid Bi undercooling. This enables the phase achieved by this analog approach to remain stable over a broad temperature range upon cooling and until re-solidification occurs around 100°C. Therefore, Bi-based metamaterials are endowed with analog optical memory capabilities, which are appealing for a wide range of applications, including optical data storage with enhanced information density or bistable photonic switching with a tunable "on" state.
KW - bismuth
KW - metamaterial
KW - phase
KW - phase change material
KW - visible
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U2 - 10.1515/nanoph-2019-0502
DO - 10.1515/nanoph-2019-0502
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85081614228
VL - 9
SP - 885
EP - 896
JO - Nanophotonics
JF - Nanophotonics
SN - 2192-8606
IS - 4
ER -