Tunable Infrared Metamaterials
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University of Central Florida STARS Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2004-2019 2010 Tunable Infrared Metamaterials David Shelton University of Central Florida Part of the Materials Science and Engineering Commons Find similar works at: https://stars.library.ucf.edu/etd University of Central Florida Libraries http://library.ucf.edu This Doctoral Dissertation (Open Access) is brought to you for free and open access by STARS. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2004-2019 by an authorized administrator of STARS. For more information, please contact [email protected]. STARS Citation Shelton, David, "Tunable Infrared Metamaterials" (2010). Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2004-2019. 4269. https://stars.library.ucf.edu/etd/4269 TUNABLE INFRARED METAMATERIALS by DAVID SHELTON B.S. University of Evansville, 2005 M.S. University of Central Florida, 2007 A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Mechanical, Materials, and Aerospace Engineering in the College of Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Central Florida Orlando, Florida Summer Term 2010 Major Professor: Glenn D. Boreman © 2010 David Shelton. ii ABSTRACT Metamaterials are engineered periodic composites that have unique refractive-index characteristics not available in natural materials. They have been demonstrated over a large portion of the electromagnetic spectrum, from visible to radiofrequency. For applications in the infrared, the structure of metamaterials is generally defined using electron-beam lithography. At these frequencies, the loss and dispersion of any metal included in the composite are of particular significance. In this regard, we investigate deviations from the Drude model due to the anomalous skin effect. For comparison with theoretical predictions, the optical properties of several different metals are measured, both at room temperature and at 4 K. We extend this analysis to the coupling between plasmon and phonon modes in a metamaterial, demonstrating that very thin oxide layers residing at the metal-substrate interface will significantly affect the spectral location of the overall resonance. Oxide-thickness-dependent trends are then explored in some detail. Potential applications of this general area of study include surface-enhanced infrared spectroscopy for chemical sensing, and development of narrowband notch filters in the very long wavelength infrared. We then consider various possibilities for development of tunable infrared metamaterials. These would have wide applicability in dynamically variable reflectance surfaces and in beam steering. We consider several methods that have been previously shown to produce tunable metamaterials in the radio frequency band, and explore the challenges that occur when such techniques are attempted at infrared frequencies. A significant advance in tunable-infrared-metamaterial technology is then demonstrated with the use of thermochromic vanadium dioxide thin films. Highlights include the first demonstration of a tunable reflectarray in the infrared for active modulation of reflected phase, the first iii demonstration of a tunable resonance frequency in the thermal infrared band, and the largest resonance-frequency shift recorded to date in any part of the infrared. Finally, future work is proposed that holds the promise of wideband frequency tuning and electronically-controllable metamaterials. iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Portions of this research including the thermochromic reflectarray, DC Schottky diode tunable devices, and the photoconductive tunable devices were supported by grants from Northrop Grumman Space Technologies, and the Florida High Tech Corridor Council. Portions of this research including work on flexible elements and THz filters were supported by grants from Idaho National Labs. Portions of this research including work on fringing field capacitance effects in split-ring resonator metamaterials and plasmon-phonon coupling were supported by the Laboratory Directed Research and Development program at Sandia National Laboratories. Sandia is a multiprogram laboratory operated by Sandia Corporation, a Lockheed Martin Company, for the United States Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration under Contract DE-AC04-94AL85000. v TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES .....................................................................................................................viii LIST OF TABLES........................................................................................................................ xii LIST OF SYMBOLS/ABBREVIATIONS..................................................................................xiii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Metamaterial Definition and Motivation .............................................................................. 1 1.2 Design, Fabrcation, and Testing Methods ............................................................................ 3 1.2.1 Design with Finite Element Method.............................................................................. 3 1.2.2 E-beam Lithography and Lift-Off Processing ............................................................... 7 1.2.3 Metamaterial Testing Techniques.................................................................................. 9 1.3 Thesis .................................................................................................................................. 10 1.4 Prior Publication and Financial Support Disclosure........................................................... 11 CHAPTER 2: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND ...................................................................... 13 2.1 The Drude and Sommerfeld Models................................................................................... 13 2.2 Surface Plasmon Polaritons ................................................................................................ 23 2.3 Metamaterials...................................................................................................................... 28 CHAPTER 3: electronic transport in metallic thin films at infrared frequencies......................... 38 3.1 Theory of the Anomalous Skin Effect ................................................................................ 39 3.2 Experimental Investigation of the Anomalous Skin Effect ................................................ 50 3.2.1 Anomalous skin effect measurements ........................................................................ 51 3.2.2 Deviation from the Sommerfeld model caused by the anomalous skin effect ............ 58 CHAPTER 4: STATIC IR METAMATERIALS......................................................................... 67 4.1 Element Fabrication on Flexible Substrates ....................................................................... 67 4.2 Narrowband Metamaterial Filters....................................................................................... 80 CHAPTER 5: metamaterials for surface-enhanced ir spectroscopy............................................. 87 5.1 Fringing Field Effects of thin oxide layers ......................................................................... 88 5.2 Plasmon-phonon coupling in IR metamaterials.................................................................. 97 CHAPTER 6: Tunable IR metamaterials.................................................................................... 114 6.1 Free carrier depletion in Schottky diodes for tunable metamaterials ............................... 116 6.2 Liquid Crystal Tunable Metamaterials ............................................................................. 124 6.3 Photoconductive a-Si:H-N for Tunable Metamaterials .................................................... 130 6.4 Thermochromic Tunable Metamaterials........................................................................... 143 CHAPTER 7: CONCLUSIONS ................................................................................................. 157 vi 7.1 Future Work...................................................................................................................... 157 7.2 Summary........................................................................................................................... 167 LIST OF REFERENCES............................................................................................................ 168 vii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: A: HFSS unit cell in standard view, B: HFSS unit cell in solver view to show boundary setup. ............................................................................................................................................... 3 Figure 2: J.A. Woollam IR VASE Ellipsometer............................................................................. 6 Figure 3: Device cross section diagrams and process flow for liftoff lithography......................... 8 Figure 4: Surface plasmon dispersion relationship for different dielectric permittivities ........... 25 Figure 5: Refraction in a normal right handed material (RHM). H is in the direction out of the plane of the page. .......................................................................................................................... 29 Figure 6: Refraction in a left handed material (LHM). H is in the direction out of