Chemically Responsive Elastomers Exhibiting Unity-Order Refractive Index Modulation
- Stanford Univ., CA (United States). Dept. of Chemistry
- Stanford Univ., CA (United States). Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering
- Stanford Univ., CA (United States). Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering; Rice Univ., Houston, TX (United States). Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering
- Donostia International Physics Center (DIPC) (Spain)
Abstract Chameleons are masters of light, expertly changing their color, pattern, and reflectivity in response to their environment. Engineered materials that share this tunability can be transformative, enabling active camouflage, tunable holograms, and novel colorimetric medical sensors. While progress has been made in creating artificial chameleon skin, existing schemes often require external power, are not continuously tunable, and may prove too stiff or bulky for applications. Here, a chemically tunable, large‐area metamaterial is demonstrated that accesses a wide range of colors and refractive indices. An ordered monolayer of nanoresonators is fabricated, then its optical response is dynamically tuned by infiltrating its polymer substrate with solvents. The material shows a strong magnetic response with a dependence on resonator spacing that leads to a highly tunable effective permittivity, permeability, and refractive index spanning negative and positive values. The unity‐order index tuning exceeds that of traditional electro‐optic and photochromic materials and is robust to cycling, providing a path toward programmable optical elements and responsive light routing.
- Research Organization:
- California Inst. of Technology (CalTech), Pasadena, CA (United States). Energy Frontier Research Center (EFRC) Light-Material Interactions in Energy Conversion (LMI)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES); National Science Foundation (NSF)
- Grant/Contract Number:
- SC0001293; DE‐SC0001293
- OSTI ID:
- 1470403
- Alternate ID(s):
- OSTI ID: 1416393
- Journal Information:
- Advanced Materials, Vol. 30, Issue 7; Related Information: LMI partners with California Institute of Technology (lead); Harvard University; University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign; Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; ISSN 0935-9648
- Publisher:
- WileyCopyright Statement
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Web of Science
Similar Records
Zinc oxide (ZnO) hybrid metasurfaces exhibiting broadly tunable topological properties
New Horizons in Near-Zero Refractive Index Photonics and Hyperbolic Metamaterials