Tunable Photosensitive Metamaterials Could Improve Elastic Wave Control

Metamaterials are materials designed with a particular geometric structure in order to obtain new physical properties. A metamaterial can alter the propagation of elastic waves so as to reduce or block them over a certain range of frequencies — the material functions as a filter. However, despite a variety of metamaterial configurations, most existing metamaterials display a frequency response that cannot be tuned once the structures are fabricated. To modify the filtered frequency range, it is necessary to create another metamaterial. This lack of adaptability limits their practical application. An international team from the Institute of Electronics, Microelectronics, and Nanotechnology (IEMN); the Polytechnic University of...