Patent ID: 9274352
Filing Date: 2016-03-01
CPC Classification: B82Y,G01J,G02B,G02F,Y10S

Claim Text:
1. An actively tunable polar-dielectric optical device, comprising: a plurality of polar-dielectric SPhP nanoantennas fabricated from a plurality of polar-dielectric materials, a first portion of each nanoantenna being fabricated from a first polar-dielectric material and a second portion of each nanoantenna being fabricated from a second polar-dielectric material, each of the first and second polar-dielectric materials being configured to exhibit surface phonon polaritons (SPhPs) when it is exposed to a corresponding incident infrared optical beam having at least one wavelength within a Reststrahlen band of that polar-dielectric material, a presence of SPhPs in each of the polar-dielectric materials affecting at least one optical property of the device, a value of the at least one optical property of the structure being dependent on a concentration of charge carriers in the polar-dielectric materials; and a controllable source of charge carriers configured to inject additional charge carriers into at least one of the polar-dielectric materials; wherein the at least one optical property is a resonant wavelength λ wherein a first injection of charge carriers into the first polar-dielectric material is configured to produce a desired permittivity ∈ wherein a second injection of charge carriers into the second polar-dielectric material is configured to produce a desired index of refraction n wherein the first and second injections of charge carriers are further configured to produce a desired resonant wavelength λ