Figure 1. Lorentz magneto-electro-optical metamaterial.

(a) Artistic impression of the nanostructure of current-carrying flexible chevron strips that are driven by the Lorentz force. The scale bar, 1 μm. (b–d) To illustrate reconfiguration-induced changes of the plasmonic response of the nanostructure, we show the magnitude and phase of the near-field E_z perpendicular to the plane of the metamaterial, 10 nm above the chevron strips. This field component is linked to the light-induced oscillating charge separation in the gold layer. The effect of displacing every second nanowire can be seen in both amplitude and phase patterns, most dramatically in the latter: the increasing displacement d from (b) 0 to (c) 50 and (d) 100 nm leads to a growing phase difference between alternating rows. In these field maps, the nanowires are separated by white areas and the first and third complete chevron strips are being displaced. Incident light is at the wavelength of 1,550 nm and linearly polarized with the electric field perpendicular to the nanowires.