Optical Tuning of Nanospheres Through Phase Transition: An Optical Nanocircuit Analysis

Abstract

Plasmonic nanostructures can be described by equivalent impedance, allowing the analysis of their properties and performance by an RLC circuit equivalent model. In this letter, the equivalent impedance has been obtained from a power budget calculation that considers the dielectric functions of the matrix and the nanostructured material, the nanostructure geometry (in this case, spheres), the light wavelength, and its polarization. When Bi or Ga nanospheres are considered, the equivalent circuit undergoes a switching from a capacitive to and inductive response when the materials change their phase from solid to liquid. Finally, this approach is applied to the design of reconfigurable metamaterials.