Controlling solar radiation forces with graphene in plasmonic metasurface

Abstract

Controlling and harvesting solar radiation pressure is a significant challenge, however, there are a few potential solutions, which are suitable for several key applications. In this study, an electrically tunable plasmonic metasurface is designed for the visible spectrum. Moreover, the normal and the tangential optical forces acting on the metasurface are calculated. Whilst presenting high efficiency in the anomalous reflection, the designed active metasurface provides tunability of optical forces acting on the metasurface. The metasurface is composed of tapered silver cells embedded on top of the graphene layer with 20 layers of graphene sheets. Hence, the transferred momentum to the metasurface can be controlled by tuning the Fermi level of graphene sheets. Our results can provide a suitable platform for optical force control desired in tunable radiation pressure harvesting, micro vehicles, solar sailing, and optical tweezers.