Electrically Reconfigurable Optical Metamaterial Based on Colloidal Dispersion of Metal Nano-Rods in Dielectric Fluid
arXiv:0912.1073 · doi:10.1063/1.3278442
Abstract
Optical metamaterials capture the imagination with breathtaking promises of nanoscale resolution in imaging and invisibility cloaking. We demonstrate an approach to construct a metamaterial in which metallic nanorods, of dimension much smaller than the wavelength of light, are suspended in a fluid and placed in a nonuniform electric field. The field controls the spatial distribution and orientation of nanorods because of the dielectrophoretic effect. The field-controlled placement of nanorods causes optical effects such as varying refractive index, optical anisotropy (birefringence), and reduced visibility of an object enclosed by the metamaterial.
The following article appeared in Applied Physics Letters (American Institute of Physics). This article may be downloaded for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and the American Institute of Physics