Nanophotonic Engineering of Reconfigurable Vanadium Dioxide Phases

The metal-insulator transition in VO₂ has extended applications in active optoelectronics and metasurfaces. Recently we have shown that by using scanning probe lithography techniques, various insulating and metallic VO₂ phases can be manipulated on-demand in nanoscale. Here we study the plasmonic properties of a room-temperature monoclinic metal phase of VO₂ and explore planar structure designs for desired optical functionalities. As a proof of concept, reconfigurable optical polarizers and plasmonic spatial modulators have been demonstrated. These results showcase the potential of building programmable nanophotonic devices on a monolithic correlated material platform.