Wideband plasmonic beam steering in metal gratings

We demonstrate controllable light deflection in thick metal gratings with periodic subwavelength slits filled with an active material. Under specific illumination conditions, the grating becomes nearly transparent and acts as a uniform optical phased-array antenna where the phase of the radiating elements is controlled by modifying the index of refraction of the material that fills each slit. The beam-steering operational regime occurs in a wide wavelength band, and it is relatively insensitive to the input angle.