Tunable plasmonic structures utilizing liquid crystals

Liquid crystals are tunable anisotropic dielectric materials which can be used to embed metallic nanostructures and to adjust the optical properties originating from the plasmonic response. Attempts to use liquid crystals for fabricating tunable metamaterials and tunable metasurfaces are reviewed in this contribution. In addition, the results of electro-optic and opto-optic experiments are presented, which demonstrate various switching opportunities of plasmonic resonators and holograms using different liquid crystal mesophases, including both non-chiral and chiral nematic or smectic (ferroelectric) liquid crystals.