Temperature Control of Terahertz Metamaterials With Liquid Crystals

We design and experimentally characterize terahertz (THz) electric split-ring-resonator metamaterials infiltrated with nematic liquid crystals (LCs). We demonstrate that the resonant response of such metamaterials can be tuned by temperature due to the change of the LC arrangement from nematic to isotropic phase. In particular, we show that the frequency tuning is strongly dependent on the initial LC orientation, with resonant frequency shifting towards lower frequencies for LC director perpendicular to the gap and towards higher frequencies for LC director parallel to the gap of the electric split ring resonators. Our results open new opportunities for the design of tunable THz filters based on LCs.