Electrically reconfigurable optical metamaterial based on colloidal dispersion of metal nanorods in dielectric fluid

摘要: Optical metamaterials capture the imagination with breathtaking promises of nanoscale resolution in imaging and invisibility cloaking. We demonstrate an approach to construct a metamaterial which metallic nanorods, dimension much smaller than wavelength light, are suspended fluid placed nonuniform electric field. The field controls spatial distribution orientation nanorods because dielectrophoretic effect. field-controlled placement causes optical effects such as varying refractive index, anisotropy (birefringence), reduced visibility object enclosed by metamaterial.