Tunability of wire-grid metamaterial immersed into nematic liquid crystal

We propose electrically tunable hybrid metamaterial consisting of special wire grid immersed into nematic liquid crystal. The plasmalike permittivity of the structure can be substantially varied due to switching of the liquid crystal alignment by external voltages applied to the wires. Depending on the scale of the structure, the effect is available for both microwave and optical frequency ranges. (c) 2008 American Institute of Physics.