Tunable and nonlinear fishnet metamaterials based on liquid crystal infiltration

Abstract

We demonstrate the use of liquid crystal infiltration of fishnet structures for the realization of highly tunable and nonlinear optical metamaterials. We show that fishnet metamaterials infiltrated with nematic liquid crystals can exhibit strong nonlinear response at moderate laser powers. We also show that this nonlinear response arises due to the molecular orientation of the liquid crystal molecules and can be therefore be fine-tuned with an electric field, opening new opportunities for electrically tunable nonlinear metamaterials.