To address the limitations of static multifunction devices and the functional singularity of dynamic single-function devices, this study presents an innovative design of a stretchable chiral metasurface with multifunctional characteristics and extensive dynamic adjustment capabilities. The chiral metasurface comprises a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) substrate, a polyimide dielectric layer, and upper and lower aluminum (Al) metal resonant layers. The asymmetrical distribution between the upper and lower Al metal resonant layers enables multiple simultaneous functions. Additionally, the stretchable properties of PDMS allow for enhanced asymmetrical distribution through unidirectional mechanical stretching of the PDMS substrate, enabling extensive dynamic adjustment of its multiple functions. Numerical simulation results demonstrate wide-ranging dynamic tuning of various optical phenomena, including asymmetric transmission, polarization conversion, circular dichroism, and asymmetric reflection, each exhibiting substantial dynamic adjustment ranges. This research demonstrates superior versatility while providing extensive dynamically adjustable characteristics. The proposed metasurface combines the excellent performance of both static multifunctional devices and dynamic single-function devices, showing significant potential for next-generation optical devices and providing theoretical foundation for the design of advanced stretchable multifunctional electromagnetic sensors and optical displays.

In this study, we propose a multifunctional, dynamically tunable stretchable chiral metasurface. The structure comprises a PDMS substrate, a polyimide dielectric layer, and metal layers. This metasurface exhibits excellent performance metrics, including an asymmetric transmission (AT) factor of 0.77, a polarization conversion rate (PCR) of 1.00, a circular dichroism (CD) parameter of 0.81, and an asymmetric reflection (AR) factor of 0.77. Furthermore, by stretching the PDMS substrate, the metasurface demonstrates a wide range of dynamic tunability: the AT factor can be adjusted within a range of 0.45, the PCR within 0.82, the CD parameter within 0.81, and the AR factor within 0.65. This research not only showcases superior multifunctionality but also offers extensive dynamic tunability, presenting significant potential for application in next-generation optical devices.

The results demonstrate that the J-shape resonant structure combined with the PDMS substrate exhibits multifunctional and dynamically adjustable characteristics. The design supports AT, PCR, CD, and AR capabilities (Fig. 2). Through unidirectional mechanical stretching of the PDMS substrate, significant dynamic adjustments are achieved: at 1.16 THz, the AT factor varies from 0.32 to 0.77, spanning a range of 0.45; peak PCR adjusts between 0.91 and 0.18 at 1.0 THz, covering a range of 0.82; CD parameters range from 0 to 0.81 at 0.90 THz, with a range of 0.81; and the AR factor varies from 0.12 to 0.77, encompassing a range of 0.65 (Fig. 3). Electric field analysis reveals that stretching the PDMS substrate enhances charge asymmetry between upper and lower metal layers during polarized light incidence, enabling extensive dynamic adjustment of asymmetric transmission and polarization conversion characteristics. For circularly polarized light incidence, substrate stretching amplifies the asymmetrical charge distribution between metal layers relative to skewed lines, facilitating wide-ranging dynamic adjustment of circular dichroism and asymmetric reflection properties (Figs. 4 and 5). The developed metasurface demonstrates superior performance and extensive dynamic property adjustment compared to previously reported designs (Table 2).

In this paper, a multifunctional dynamically adjustable stretchable chiral metasurface is proposed. The effect of unidirectional mechanically stretched PDMS substrates on the large-scale dynamic adjustment of multifunctional chiral metasurface functions is studied by numerical simulations by finite difference time domain (FDTD) method. When entering the ray polarization wave, the PDMS substrate is stretched to make the maximum values of AT factor and PCR up to 0.77 and 1.00, and the adjustment range can reach 0.45 and 0.82, and when the incident circular polarization wave is informed, the maximum values of CD parameters and AR factor can reach 0.81 and 0.77, and the adjustment range can reach 0.81 and 0.65. The cause of the asymmetry is verified by electric field distribution analysis. The device not only has excellent multifunctional characteristics, but also has the ability to dynamically adjust a wide range, and has a good application prospect in related fields such as next-generation stretchable multifunction electromagnetic sensors and optical displays.