Traditionally, active metasurface research has primarily focused on changing the dielectric constant and permeability of the substrate, which frequently results in resonance effect and ohmic loss. However, a reconfigurable metasurface based on mechanical deformation can avoid these problems. At the moment, though, mechanical reconfigurable metasurfaces represented by the MEMS and FIB-induced deformation processes are difficult to fabricate or have limited resilience. As a new type of liquid crystal polymer material, Liquid Crystal Elastomer (LCE) can realize controllable and recoverable elastic deformation in response to temperature rise or light irradiation, which has generated enormous interest in the communities of chemistry, materials, and bionics. LCE’s good optical/thermal-induced deformation performance suggests that it would be an excellent candidate to play an active part in reconfigurable metasurfaces, though until now it was rarely used to modulate metasurface response.
Click here for original story, Active terahertz beam steering based on mechanical deformation of a liquid crystal elastomer metasurface
Source: Phys.org