Dynamically field-reconfigurable photonically-functional wide-spectrum cells

Abstract

Gaining active, reconfigurable control of optical properties in photonic devices is challenging. Dynamic visible and near-infrared scattering occurs, from cephalopod chromatophore color-producing organs atop iridophores, Bragg stacks consisting of reflectin protein. We present a model, using our broadband refractive indices for xanthommatin, the chromatophore pigment, of the combined chromatophore and iridophore system, a dynamically tunable photonic device in Nature that responds across the visible-near-infrared. We also report on a broadband light-scattering sub-wavelength-periodicity metasurface composed of ferromagnetic islands. This magnetic metasurface is potentially rectifying. By applying a magnetic field, nonlinear optoelectronic properties such as light scattering and optical rectification can be reconfigured. The large tunability of both these electrically- and magnetically-reconfigurable photonic platforms may enable better detectors, new computing architectures, etc.