Design of switchable, narrowband thermal absorption peaks in metal-vanadium-dioxide gratings

Abstract

We design structures with switchable, narrowband thermal absorption peaks, based on metallic gratings incorporating phase-change materials. An insulator-to-metal phase transition in vanadium dioxide is used to turn the coupling between a surface plasmon mode and a normally incident electromagnetic wave on and off. We analyze the limits on absorptive switching within the framework of coupled-mode theory, in order to evaluate the optimality of specific designs.