Journal
NANOPHOTONICS
Volume 9, Issue 3, Pages 675-681Publisher
WALTER DE GRUYTER GMBH
DOI: 10.1515/nanoph-2019-0458
Keywords
phase change materials; multiphysics simulations; phase field model; active metamaterials; perfect absorber
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Funding
- DFG through the Heisenberg Fellowship [CH 407/7-2]
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Adaptive metasurfaces (MSs) provide immense control over the phase, amplitude and propagation direction of electromagnetic waves. Adopting phase-change materials (PCMs) as an adaptive medium allows us to tune functionality of MSs at the meta-atom length scale providing full control over MS (re-)programmability. Recent experimental progress in the local switching of PCM-based MSs promises to revolutionize adaptive photonics. Novel possibilities open new challenges, one of which is a necessity to understand and be able to predict the phase transition behavior at the sub-micrometer scale. A meta-atom can be switched by a local deposition of heat using optical or electrical pulses. The deposited energy is strongly inhomogeneous and the resulting phase transition is spatially non-uniform. The drastic change of the material properties during the phase transition leads to time-dependent changes in the absorption rate and heat conduction near the meta-atom. These necessitate a self-consistent treatment of electromagnetic, thermal and phase transition processes. Here, a self-consistent multiphysics description of an optically induced phase transition in MSs is reported. The developed model is used to analyze local tuning of a perfect absorber. A detailed understanding of the phase transition at the meta-atom length scale will enable a purposeful design of programmable adaptive MSs.
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