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Results for “Tunable Metamaterial”

Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 19 records
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2013

Tunable metamaterials based on voltage controlled strong coupling

We present the design, fabrication, and realization of an electrically tunable metamaterial operating in the mid-infrared spectral range. Our devices combine intersubband transitions in semiconductor quantum-wells with planar metamaterials and operate in the strong light-matter coupling regime. The resonance frequency of the intersubband transition can be controlled by an external bias relative to the fixed metamaterial resonance. This allows us to switch dynamically from an uncoupled to a strongly coupled system and thereby to shift the eigenfrequency of the upper polariton branch by 2.5 THz (corresponding to 8% of the center frequency or one full linewidth) with a bias of 5 V.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2016

Tunable VO2/Au hyperbolic metamaterial

Vanadium dioxide (VO2) is known to have a semiconductor-to-metal phase transition at ∼68 °C. Therefore, it can be used as a tunable component of an active metamaterial. The lamellar metamaterial studied in this work is composed of subwavelength VO2 and Au layers and is designed to undergo a temperature controlled transition from the optical hyperbolic phase to the metallic phase. VO2 films and VO2/Au lamellar metamaterial stacks have been fabricated and studied in electrical conductivity and optical (transmission and reflection) experiments. The observed temperature-dependent changes in the reflection and transmission spectra of the metamaterials and VO2 thin films are in a good qualitative agreement with theoretical predictions. The demonstrated optical hyperbolic-to-metallic phase transition is a unique physical phenomenon with the potential to enable advanced control of light-matter interactions.

Prayakarao, S. (ORCID:000000018108360X)↗
DOE OSTI2015

Mid-infrared tunable metamaterials

A mid-infrared tunable metamaterial comprises an array of resonators on a semiconductor substrate having a large dependence of dielectric function on carrier concentration and a semiconductor plasma resonance that lies below the operating range, such as indium antimonide. Voltage biasing of the substrate generates a resonance shift in the metamaterial response that is tunable over a broad operating range. The mid-infrared tunable metamaterials have the potential to become the building blocks of chip based active optical devices in mid-infrared ranges, which can be used for many applications, such as thermal imaging, remote sensing, and environmental monitoring.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2017

Mid-infrared tunable metamaterials

A mid-infrared tunable metamaterial comprises an array of resonators on a semiconductor substrate having a large dependence of dielectric function on carrier concentration and a semiconductor plasma resonance that lies below the operating range, such as indium antimonide. Voltage biasing of the substrate generates a resonance shift in the metamaterial response that is tunable over a broad operating range. The mid-infrared tunable metamaterials have the potential to become the building blocks of chip based active optical devices in mid-infrared ranges, which can be used for many applications, such as thermal imaging, remote sensing, and environmental monitoring.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2014

Micro-electro-mechanically tunable metamaterial with enhanced electro-optic performance

We experimentally demonstrate a micro-electro-mechanically tunable metamaterial with enhanced electro-optical performance by increasing the number of movable cantilevers in the symmetrical split ring resonator metamaterial unit cell. Simulations were carried out to understand the interaction of the incident terahertz radiation with out-of-plane deforming metamaterial resonator. In order to improve the overall device performance, the number of released cantilever in a unit cell was increased from one to two, and it was seen that the tunable range was doubled and the switching contrast improved by a factor of around five at 0.7 THz. This simple design approach can be adopted for a wide range of high performance electro-optical devices such as continuously tunable filters, modulators, and electro-optic switches to enable future photonic circuit applications.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2014

A tunable metamaterial dependent on electric field at terahertz with barium strontium titanate thin film

A tunable metamaterial with resonance frequency at terahertz (THz) was developed. Electromagnetic response of the metamaterial was characterized with THz time domain spectrometer at various direct current electric fields. The resonance frequency increased monotonously with increasing electric field. The finite difference time domain method was used to simulate the transmission spectra of the metamaterial at THz frequencies. By comparing the simulated resonance frequency with the experimental curve, dielectric property of the Ba{sub 0.6}Sr{sub 0.4}TiO{sub 3} (BST60) thin film at THz, over 0–33 kV/cm, was evaluated.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2025

Scalable phononic metamaterials: Tunable bandgap design and multi-scale experimental validation

Phononic metamaterials offer unprecedented control over wave propagation, making them essential for applications such as vibration isolation, waveguiding, and acoustic filtering. However, achieving scalable and precisely tunable bandgap properties across different length scales remains challenging. This study presents a user-friendly design framework for phononic metamaterials, enabling ultra-wide bandgap tunability (B/ω c ratios up to 172 %) across multiple frequency ranges and scales. Using finite element simulations of a Yablonovite-inspired unit cell, we establish a comprehensive parametric design space that illustrates how geometric parameters, such as sphere size and beam diameter, controls bandgap width and frequency. The scalability and robustness of the framework are validated through experimental testing on additively manufactured structures at both macro (10 mm) and micro (80 µm) scales, fabricated using Stereolithography and Two-Photon Polymerization. Transmission loss measurements, conducted with piezoelectric transducers and laser vibrometry, closely match simulations in the kHz and MHz frequency ranges, confirming the reliability and consistency of the bandgap behavior across scales. This work bridges theory and experiments at multiple scales, offering a practical methodology for the rapid design of phononic metamaterials and expanding their potential for diverse applications across a broad range of frequencies.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2021

Nanoporous gold nanoleaf as tunable metamaterial

Abstract We have studied optical properties of single-layer and multi-fold nanoporous gold leaf (NPGL) metamaterials and observed highly unusual transmission spectra composed of two well-resolved peaks. We explain this phenomenon in terms of a surface plasmon absorption band positioned on the top of a broader transmission band, the latter being characteristic of both homogeneous “solid” and inhomogeneous “diluted” Au films. The transmission spectra of NPGL metamaterials were shown to be controlled by external dielectric environments, e.g. water and applied voltage in an electrochemical cell. This paves the road to numerous functionalities of the studied tunable and active metamaterials, including control of spontaneous emission, energy transfer and many others.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2016

Self-Assembled, Nanostructured, Tunable Metamaterials via Spinodal Decomposition

Self-assembly via nanoscale phase separation offers an elegant route to fabricate nanocomposites with physical properties unattainable in single-component systems. One important class of nanocomposites are optical metamaterials which exhibit exotic properties and lead to opportunities for agile control of light propagation. Such metamaterials are typically fabricated via expensive and hard-to-scale top-down processes requiring precise integration of dissimilar materials. In turn, there is a need for alternative, more efficient routes to fabricate large-scale metamaterials for practical applications with deep-subwave length resolution. Here, we demonstrate a bottom-up approach to fabricate scalable nanostructured metamaterials via spinodal decomposition. To demonstrate the potential of such an approach, we leverage the innate spinodal decomposition of the VO 2 -TiO 2 system, the metal-to-insulator transition in VO 2 , and thin-film epitaxy, to produce self-organized nanostructures with coherent interfaces and a structural unit cell down to 15 nm (tunable between horizontally and vertically aligned lamellae) wherein the iso-frequency surface is temperature-tunable from elliptic to hyperbolic dispersion producing metamaterial behavior. These results provide an efficient route for the fabrication of nanostructured metamaterials and other nanocomposites for desired functionalities.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2024

Tunable Metamaterials for Impact Mitigation

Traditional methods of shielding fragile goods and human tissues from impact energy rely on isotropic foam materials. The mechanical properties of these foams are inferior to an emerging class of metamaterials called plate lattices, which have predominantly been fabricated in simple 2.5-dimensional geometries using conventional methods that constrain the feasible design space. Here in this work, additive manufacturing is used to relax these constraints and realize plate lattice metamaterials with nontrivial, locally varying geometry. The limitations of traditional computer-aided design tools are circumvented and allow the simulation of complex buckling and collapse behaviors without a manual meshing step. By validating these simulations against experimental data from tests on fabricated samples, sweeping exploration of the plate lattice design space is enabled. Numerical and experimental tests demonstrate plate lattices absorb up to six times more impact energy at equivalent densities relative to foams and shield objects from impacts ten times more energetic while transmitting equivalent peak stresses. In contrast to previous investigations of plate lattice metamaterials, designs with nonuniform geometric prebuckling in the out-of-plane direction is explored and showed that these designs exhibit 10% higher energy absorption efficiency on average and 25% higher in the highest-performing design.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗