Abstract
As a result of advances in nanotechnology and the burgeoning capabilities for fabricating materials with controlled nanoscale geometries, the traditional notion of what constitutes an optical device continues to evolve. The fusion of maturing low-cost lithographic techniques with newer optical design strategies has enabled the introduction of artificially structured metamaterials in place of conventional materials for improving optical components as well as realizing new optical functionality. Here we demonstrate multilayer, lithographically patterned, subwavelength, metal elements, whose distribution forms a computer-generated phase hologram in the infrared region (10.6 μm). Metal inclusions exhibit extremely large scattering and can be implemented in metamaterials that exhibit a wide range of effective medium response, including anomalously large or negative refractive index; optical magnetism; and controlled anisotropy. This large palette of metamaterial responses can be leveraged to achieve greater control over the propagation of light, leading to more compact, efficient and versatile optical components.
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported by a Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative, sponsored by the US Army Research Office (Grant No. W911NF-09-1-0539).
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S.L., Y-J.T. and D.R.S. conceived the application of metamaterials for holography and designed the experiment. T.T. and N.M.J. developed the fabrication protocols. Y-J.T. carried out simulations and characterization. T.T. fabricated the sample. S.L. wrote the manuscript.
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Larouche, S., Tsai, YJ., Tyler, T. et al. Infrared metamaterial phase holograms. Nature Mater 11, 450–454 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat3278
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat3278
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