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US 10,481,433 B1Granted
Dynamic optical and RF devices based on structured plasmonics and liquid crystal hybrids
AssigneeThe United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Air Force
InventorsVictor Yu Reshetnyak, Dean R. Evans
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Abstract
An optical/RF apparatus comprising a liquid crystal (LC) layer placed above or below a plasmon layer (e.g., a periodic array of graphene ribbons) to enable the tuning of the surface plasmons by varying the voltage applied to the LC to realize thereby devices such as tunable mid-IR, far-IR or THz modulators and filters.
Claims17
An apparatus, comprising:
- a substrate having permittivity and absorption characteristics supporting plasmon excitation within a spectral region of interest;
- a plasmonic layer, disposed upon the substrate and including plasmonic material configured to exhibit surface plasmon polaritons (SPP) when exposed to an incident light beam of a first polarization;
- and
- a liquid crystal (LC) layer, disposed upon at least a portion of the plasmonic layer and configured to change a polarization of a light beam passing therethrough;
- said LC layer, in response to a first electric field applied thereto, changes said polarization of said light beam passing therethrough to said first polarization;
- said LC layer, in response to a second electric field applied thereto, changes said polarization of said light beam passing therethrough to a second polarization, said second polarization being substantially orthogonal to said first polarization, wherein the plasmonic material comprises at least one layer of graphene ribbons having a geometry and spacing selected to provide sensitivity to the spectral region of interest, wherein said first polarization is perpendicular to a long axis of said graphene ribbons.
3 more elements
A method, comprising:
- disposing, upon a substrate having permittivity and absorption characteristics supporting plasmon excitation within spectral region of interest, a plasmonic layer including plasmonic material configured to exhibit surface plasmon polaritons (SPP) when exposed to an incident light beam of a first polarization;
- and
- disposing, upon at least a portion of the plasmonic layer, a liquid crystal (LC) layer configured to change a polarization of a light beam passing therethrough;
- the LC layer, in response to a first electric field applied thereto, changes the polarization of the light beam passing therethrough to the first polarization;
- the LC layer, in response to a second electric field applied thereto, changes the polarization of the light beam passing therethrough to a second polarization, the second polarization being substantially orthogonal to the first polarization, wherein the plasmonic material comprises at least one layer of graphene ribbons having a geometry and spacing selected to provide sensitivity to the spectral region of interest wherein said first polarization is perpendicular to a long axis of said graphene ribbons.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.