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Effect of Alignment on a Liquid Crystal/Split‐Ring Resonator Metasurface
Author(s) -
Atorf Bernhard,
Mühlenbernd Holger,
Muldarisnur Mulda,
Zentgraf Thomas,
Kitzerow Heinz
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
chemphyschem
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.016
H-Index - 140
eISSN - 1439-7641
pISSN - 1439-4235
DOI - 10.1002/cphc.201301069
Subject(s) - resonance (particle physics) , resonator , liquid crystal , split ring resonator , permittivity , electric field , materials science , excited state , plasmon , dielectric , crystal (programming language) , optics , surface plasmon resonance , ring (chemistry) , optoelectronics , metamaterial , molecular physics , chemistry , atomic physics , physics , nanotechnology , computer science , organic chemistry , quantum mechanics , nanoparticle , programming language
A metasurface comprising a two‐dimensional array of split‐ring resonators with resonance frequencies in the near‐infrared region is fabricated and embedded in a uniformly aligned liquid crystal. The change of the dielectric permittivity in proximity to the plasmonic structure by the replacement of air with the liquid crystal results in a decrease in resonance frequencies. The resonance shift can be attributed to the interaction of the evanescent field of the excited resonant plasmon modes with the liquid crystal. This shift in resonance frequency is found to depend on the liquid‐crystal alignment and to vary for different modes. Also, the resulting effects of changes in temperature or applied external electric field on the metasurface depend on the liquid‐crystal alignment and may differ from mode to mode. These observations indicate that the characteristic frequencies of the resonant split‐ring resonator modes may depend on different evanescent field components interacting with the liquid crystal. Consequently, certain design rules should be taken into account for the development of tunable metasurfaces based on liquid crystals.