Soft optical metamaterials

• Published in: Nano convergence Vol. 7; no. 1; pp. 18 - 17
• Main Authors: Chen, Yixin, Ai, Bin, Wong, Zi Jing
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Singapore Springer Singapore 26.05.2020; Springer Nature B.V; SpringerOpen; 나노기술연구협의회
• Subjects: Advance in Photonic Devices Scaling Down to the Nanoscale; Chemistry and Materials Science; Image resolution; Materials Science; Metamaterials; Metasurfaces; Nanofabrication; Nanophotonics; Nanoscale Science and Technology; Nanotechnology; Nanotechnology and Microengineering; Optical properties; Reconfigurable metamaterials; Review; Soft matter; Stealth technology; Visibility; 고분자공학; Soft matter; Nanophotonics; Metasurfaces; Nanofabrication; Metamaterials; Reconfigurable metamaterials
• ISSN: 2196-5404; 2196-5404
• DOI: 10.1186/s40580-020-00226-7

Optical metamaterials consist of artificially engineered structures exhibiting unprecedented optical properties beyond natural materials. Optical metamaterials offer many novel functionalities, such as super-resolution imaging, negative refraction and invisibility cloaking. However, most optical metamaterials are comprised of rigid materials that lack tunability and flexibility, which hinder their practical applications. This limitation can be overcome by integrating soft matters within the metamaterials or designing responsive metamaterial structures. In addition, soft metamaterials can be reconfigured via optical, electrical, thermal and mechanical stimuli, thus enabling new optical properties and functionalities. This paper reviews different types of soft and reconfigurable optical metamaterials and their fabrication methods, highlighting their exotic properties. Future directions to employ soft optical metamaterials in next-generation metamaterial devices are identified.