Double-sided liquid crystal metasurfaces for electrically and mechanically controlled broadband visible anomalous refraction

Abstract

Liquid crystals self-assemble on nanopatterned alignment layers into purely soft matter metasurfaces sensitive to external stimuli and imparting tailored spatial modulations to transmitted light wavefronts. Upon fine optimization, they are capable of efficient light deflection by virtue of anomalous refraction into a dominating transmission diffraction order. To expand the spectral range and acquire additional functionality, we put forward the double-sided metasurface design based on the liquid crystal alignment by a pair of complementing patterned substrates. We numerically optimize, fabricate, and experimentally characterize metasurfaces refracting red light with an efficiency of up to 70% and sustaining the efficiency above 50% in a broad range of visible wavelengths exceeding 500 nm. We verify that the refraction is reversibly switched in less than 10 ms by voltages of a few volts. We also report on a remarkable mechanical reconfigurability, as micrometer-scale relative substrate shift flips the refraction direction.

Keywords

• anomalous refraction
• electro-optical switching
• mechanical tunability
• metasurfaces
• nematic liquid crystal