Highly Efficient Active All-Dielectric Metasurfaces Based on Hybrid Structures Integrated with Phase-Change Materials: From Terahertz to Optical Ranges

Recently, all-dielectric metasurfaces (AMs) have emerged as a promising platform for high-efficiency devices ranging from the terahertz to optical ranges. However, active and fast tuning of their properties, such as amplitude, phase, and operating frequency, remains challenging. Here, a generic method is proposed for obtaining high-efficiency active AMs from the terahertz to optical ranges by using “hybrid structures” integrated with phase-change materials. Various phase-change mechanisms including metal–insulator phase change, nonvolatile phase change, and ferroelectric phase change are investigated. We first experimentally demonstrate several high-efficiency active AMs operating in the terahertz range based on hybrid structures composed of free-standing silicon microstructures covered with ultrathin phase-change nanofilms (thickness d ≪ λ). We show that both the frequencies and the strength of the Mie resonances can be efficiently tuned, resulting in unprecedented modulation depth. Furthermore, detailed analyses of available phase-change materials and their properties are provided to offer more options for active AMs. Finally, several feasible hybrid structures for active AMs in the optical range are proposed and confirmed numerically. The broad platform built in this work for active manipulation of waves from the terahertz to optical ranges may have numerous potential applications in optical devices including switches, modulators, and sensors