Switching metamaterials with electronic signals and electron-beam excitations

We demonstrate that the material technology behind rewritable optical disks offers a new switching paradigm for metamaterials. Non-volatile optical switching devices are achieved through the hybridization of planar metamaterials with functional chalcogenide glass. We show experimentally that this phase-change medium can be switched in a hybrid metamaterial structure between amorphous and crystalline states by application of short electrical pulses or by stimulation with a focused electron beam.We have achieved a significant shift in the resonant transmission spectrum of metamaterials based on metallic nanostructures that support plasmonic dark-mode resonances, hybridized with nanoscale layers of the chalcogenide gallium lanthanum sulphide. The transition between amorphous and crystalline forms brings about a 120 nm shift in the near-infrared resonance wavelength of the hybrid structure, providing transmission modulation functionality with a contrast ratio of 4:1 in a device of sub-wavelength thickness