From their emergence as a paradigm for engineering new passive electromagnetic properties, metamaterial concepts have extended rapidly to include a vast array of dynamic - switchable, tunable, reconfigurable, and nonlinear optical functionalities. This is typically achieved through the hybridization of plasmonic (noble metal) metamaterials/surfaces with active media.
Alternative media for metamaterial applications
To mitigate the substantial losses encountered in noble metals at optical frequencies, while also improving manufacturing process practicality and compatibility with established optoelectronic technologies, considerable resources have been devoted of late to the discovery and engineering of alternative media.
Here we adopt a high throughput combinatorial approach to the search for alternative media for metamaterial applications. This can enable a host of revolutionary new devices in a single nanostructured film. In particular, we concentrate on the chalcogenide family of materials. By virtue of their high refractive index and topological surface states, chalcogenides glasses provide a unique dielectric platform for realising plasmonic and/or guided mode resonant reflection and transmission properties that can be reconfigured.