Photonic metamaterial with a subwavelength electrode pattern.

The next generation of tunable photonics requires highly conductive and light inert interconnects that enable fast switching of phase, amplitude, and polarization modulators without reducing their efficiency. As such, metallic electrodes should be avoided, as they introduce significant parasitic losses. Transparent conductive oxides, on the other hand, offer reduced absorption due to their high bandgap and good conductivity due to their relatively high carrier concentration. Here, we present a metamaterial that enables electrodes to be in contact with the light active part of optoelectronic devices without the accompanying metallic losses and scattering. To this end, we use transparent conductive oxides and refractive index matched dielectrics as the metamaterial constituents. We present the metamaterial construction together with various characterization techniques that confirm the desired optical and electrical properties.