Tunable Metasurfaces and Metamaterials for Terahertz, Infrared and Thermal Control
This community designs engineered thin-film structures to absorb, emit, or switch electromagnetic radiation in the terahertz, mid-infrared, and solar spectra. The work centers on creating devices that can be tuned by temperature or material phase, primarily for thermal management, radiative cooling, and solar energy harvesting.
The research is dominated by the design of metamaterial absorbers and metasurfaces, with a heavy focus on vanadium dioxide (VO2) due to its metal-insulator phase transition. Recurring applications include broadband terahertz absorption, tunable mid-infrared devices, and solar absorbers for energy harvesting. A significant portion of the work addresses radiative cooling, specifically daytime and subambient cooling technologies, as well as thermochromic smart windows. Other key materials and methods include graphene-based plasmonic structures, titanium nitride (TiN) solar absorbers, and photonic crystals. The design goal is consistently high efficiency, broadband response, and tunability across these spectral ranges.
The largest share of the community's output is found in vanadium research, accounting for 7.5% of all vanadium research tracked, with 7,580 papers in this group. Silicon and carbon also appear frequently, contributing 3,867 and 2,607 papers respectively.
The community comprises 36,663 papers, publishing most frequently in Optics Express, Applied Physics Letters, and Optics & Laser Technology.
Recent work continues to focus on VO2-based terahertz absorbers and tunable mid-infrared devices, alongside the development of ultra-broadband solar absorbers using titanium nitride and graphene.