Abstract
This paper reports a novel method to modulate the surface plasmon resonance (SPR) by isotropically straining a polymeric substrate to induce reconfigurations of photonic nanostructures above the substrate. By macroscopic straining the substrate, the microscopic stress was transferred to the metallic nanostructures, which in turn induced different SPRs, as the operating principle. Studies indicated that although the substrate was anisotropically strained in limited directions, the SPR was modulated isotropically at the geometric center of the substrate. Demonstrative isotropic SPR modulation was achieved with a single and fundamental configuration of the nanostructures for the first time, and the tunable operation was proven by a color switched from blue to green. Comprehensive theoretical optical and mechanical designs, numerical mechanical evaluations, device fabrication, experimental verification, and analysis were conducted in this work.