Simulation Studies on Thermally Tunable Metasurface Structures

In this paper, a thermally tunable metasurface is developed from indium antimonide (InSb) as the thermally responsive material. The metasurface design incorporates two geometries, namely, cylindrical and cuboidal structures fabricated on a gold film (Au) deposited onto a glass substrate. The absorption spectrum analysis of the metasurface reveals temperature-dependent frequency shifts in the absorption peaks, demonstrating its ability to achieve dynamic reconfiguration through thermal control. By adjusting the temperature, the optical response of the metasurface can be actively tuned, enabling adaptability in real-time photonic applications. The sensitivity of the metasurface is determined by finding the rate of the temperature-induced frequency variation (<tex xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">$\text{GHz} / \mathrm{K}$</tex>) and by the refractive index of the surrounding medium (<tex xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">$\text{GHz} / \text{RIU}$</tex>). The development of such a configuration based on InSb opens up opportunities for applications in thermally tunable optical devices, as well as refractive index sensing. This article contributes useful information toward the design of metasurfaces for dynamically reconfigurable photonic applications.