Tuning direct-written terahertz metadevices with organic mixed ion-electron conductors

Cristiano Bortolotti, Federico Grandi, Matteo Butti, Lorenzo Gatto, Francesco Modena, Christina Kousseff, Iain McCulloch, Caterina Vozzi, Mario Caironi, Eugenio Cinquanta () and Giorgio Ernesto Bonacchini ()
Additional contact information
Cristiano Bortolotti: Politecnico di Milano
Federico Grandi: Politecnico di Milano
Matteo Butti: Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia
Lorenzo Gatto: Politecnico di Milano
Francesco Modena: Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia
Christina Kousseff: University of Oxford
Iain McCulloch: University of Oxford
Caterina Vozzi: Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche
Mario Caironi: Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia
Eugenio Cinquanta: Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche
Giorgio Ernesto Bonacchini: Università degli Studi di Padova

Nature Communications, 2024, vol. 15, issue 1, 1-7

Abstract: Abstract In the past decade, organic mixed ion-electron conductors have been successfully adopted in innovative bioelectronic, neuromorphic, and electro-optical technologies, as well as in multiple energy harvesting and printed electronics applications. However, despite the intense research efforts devoted to these materials, organic mixed conductors have not yet found application in electronic/photonic devices operating in key regions of the electromagnetic spectrum, such as the microwave (>5 GHz) and terahertz (0.1-10 THz) ranges. A possible reason for this technological gap is the widespread notion that organic electronic materials are unsuitable for high-frequency applications. In this work, we demonstrate for the first time the utility of high-performance polymer mixed conductors as electro-active tuning layers in reconfigurable terahertz metasurfaces, achieving modulation performances comparable with state-of-the-art inorganic and 2D semiconductors. Through time-domain terahertz spectroscopy, we show that the large conductivity modulations of these polymers, until now probed only at very low frequencies, are effectively preserved in the terahertz range, leading to optimal metadevice reconfigurability. Finally, we leverage the unique processability of organic materials to develop fully direct-written electrically tuneable metasurfaces onto both rigid and flexible substrates, opening new opportunities for the mass-scale realization of flexible and light-weight terahertz optics with unique mechanical characteristics and environmental footprint.

Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-53372-5 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:15:y:2024:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-024-53372-5

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-53372-5

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().