Manipulation of the Optical Properties of a Plasmonic Metamaterial Film by an External Transverse Voltage

The macroscopic permittivity tensors of a film-shaped metamaterial medium are calculated for the case when the charge carrier concentration \(N_0\) of each constituent of the composite metamaterial varies across the film thickness. The influence of an applied transverse voltage on the surface plasmon resonances and on the optical properties of such a system are studied. It is shown that the macroscopic effective permittivity tensor, as well as other optical properties of the metamaterial, are extremely sensitive to the applied transverse voltage. This can be used to construct fast switches and other optical devices.