Dynamic Optical Components by Combining Plasmonic Metasurfaces with Piezoelectric MEMS

Optical metasurfaces offer an incredible wealth of opportunities to control light in new ways. Comprised of sub-wavelength sized structures they enable effective material properties not present in naturally occurring substances, and which can be tailored by design to control all properties of light. Dynamic metasurfaces - metasurfaces that can adjust their properties during use - are especially promising, and there is currently a large ongoing effort by the research community to identify and develop these devices.

This thesis presents studies on one such system. By replacing the metallic substrate in gap surface plasmon metasurfaces with a piezoelectric MEMS mirror, we realize metasurface structures coupled to a micro-cavity with a variable length. This results in a dynamic reflective metasurface with fast response down to 5 µs, high efficiency of 50-90 %, full 2π phase control, and we demonstrate the concept for several interesting use cases in near IR frequencies. Through the introductory chapters and included articles, the design, fabrication, assembly and characterization of these devices is presented, and their merits and drawbacks are discussed in light of other developments in the field. Being based on two recent, but by now well established technologies, the final conclusion is that the platform represents a suitable and cost-effective platform for realizing dynamic metasurfaces.