Optical Nanomaterials: Light Manipulation in Metallic Nanowire Networks with Functional Connectivity

In article number 1600580, Andrea Fratalocchi, Federico Capasso, and co-workers introduce a novel class of “network” metamaterials, whose functionality is controlled by the connectivity among heterogeneous subwavelength components within a complex network. Using theory and experiments in dealloyed metallic nanowire networks, it is shown how the network connectivity supports the formation of a tunable absorbing state, which is deterministically controllable and originates in regions that are only a few nanometers thick.