A magnetic actuation scheme for nano-kirigami metasurfaces with reconfigurable circular dichroism

Abstract

Nano-kirigami-based deformable metasurfaces offer unique advantages in the dynamic modulation of optical fields and the realization of reconfigurable micro-/nano-optoelectronic devices. Here, we theoretically propose and numerically demonstrate a magnetically actuated deformation scheme for 2D nano-kirigami structures, which can be accurately and continuously transformed from 2D to 3D. Based on the traditional pinwheel structure, an Fe/Au bilayer anti-pinwheel nanostructure is designed and dynamically transformed by employing magnetic attraction in numerical simulations, in which the ratio between deformation height and lateral period could reach up to 0.563. More importantly, it is found that the anti-pinwheel structure has superior circular dichroism (CD), whose maximum CD response could reach 7 times that of the corresponding pinwheel structure. Further analysis of the scattering power of multipole moments reveals that such a superior CD response is found to be induced by the handedness-dependent excitation of a toroidal dipole moment. Such a straightforward magnetically actuated deformation and novel anti-pinwheel structure provides useful methodologies to explore and realize deformable metamaterials and their dynamic regulation capabilities, as well as applications in chiral spectroscopy, optical reconfiguration, optical sensing, etc.