Thermally switchable polarization manipulation and diodelike transmission in scalable, resonator-free, mid-infrared metasurfaces with vanadium-dioxide grids

Abstract

We conceptualized three-array scalable metasurfaces comprising only three thin strip grids and numerically demonstrated their characteristics in the mid-infrared spectral regime for switchable polarization manipulation and related asymmetric diodelike transmission (AT). A few or all of the grids were taken to be made of VO$_2$, a phase-change material. For each proposed metasurface, two effective structures and, therefore, two different functionalities exist, corresponding to the metallic and insulating phases of VO$_2$. The achieved scenarios of functionality switching that depend on the VO$_2$ phase are shown to significantly depend in the way in which VO$_2$ is incorporated to the metasurface. Switchable bands of polarization manipulation are up to 40 THz wide. The AT band can be modulated when Fabry--Perot (anti-)resonances come into play.