Reconfigurable Integrated High-Speed Thermal Metamaterial Pixel Arrays

Thermal signatures carry unique infrared appearances and spectral fingerprints of objects, but controlling them across spatial, temporal, and spectral domains remains challenging due to thermal emission's slow, diffuse, and broadband emitting nature. We demonstrate a reconfigurable ultrafast thermal metamaterial pixel array integrating active metasurfaces with dual-gate graphene transistors (Gr-FETs). Each pixel's Gr-FETs provide heater-switch dual functionalities: one as a broadband transparent microheater supporting arbitrary metasurface designs for multicolor, narrowband infrared emission with ultrafast modulation speed of minimum 187 kHz, and the other as an electrical switch enabling unified array control without compromising emission intensity. Decoupling thermal generation and emission design processes, our approach provides unprecedented programming flexibility across space, time, and wavelength. Our fabricated array experimentally demonstrated 26 alphabetical letters through progressive scanning, paving the way for universal thermal signature control in advanced thermal-infrared applications.