Tunable Metamaterials Fabricated by Fiber Drawing

Abstract

We demonstrate a practical scalable approach to the fabrication of tunable metamaterials. Designed for terahertz (THz) wavelengths, the metamaterial is comprised of polyurethane filled with an array of indium wires using the well-established fiber drawing technique. Modification of the dimensions of the metamaterial provides tunability; by compressing the metamaterial we demonstrated a 50% plasma frequency shift using THz time-domain spectroscopy. Releasing the compression allowed the metamaterial to return to its original dimensions and plasma frequency, demonstrating dynamic reversible tunability.