US Patent 8717659 Tunable metamaterials and related devices

A tunable metamaterial comprising a membrane on which is arranged a two-dimensional array of elements to form a metamaterial, wherein the array is subdivided into blocks of multiple elements, each block being separated from adjacent blocks by a gap to allow each block to be moveable relative to its adjacent blocks. The lattice of the metamaterial and hence its properties are tuned by inducing adjacent blocks to move away from each other or towards each other either in-plane or out-of-plane in a controllable manner in response to an electrical, thermal or optical control signal.