Paper detail

Electrically switchable metasurface for beam steering using PEDOT

Switchable and active metasurfaces allow for the realization of beam steering, zoomable metalenses, or dynamic holography. To achieve this goal, one has to combine high-performance metasurfaces with switchable materials that exhibit high refractive index contrast and high switching speeds. In this work, we present an electrochemically switchable metasurface for beam steering where we use the conducting polymer poly(3,4-ethylene-dioxythiophene) (PEDOT) as an active material. We show beam diffraction with angles up to 10° and change of the intensities of the diffracted and primary beams employing an externally applied cyclic voltage between -1 V and +0.5 V. With this unique combination, we realize switching speeds in the range of 1 Hz while the extension to typical display frequencies in the tens of Hz region is possible. Our findings have immediate implications on the design and fabrication of future electronically switchable and display nanotechnologies, such as dynamic holograms.