U.S. scientists say they've created a unique metamaterial that can be tuned over a range of frequencies in the so-called "terahertz gap."

The team of researchers from Boston College, the Los Alamos National Laboratory and Boston University said they incorporated semiconducting materials in critical regions of tiny metallic split-ring resonators that interact with light in order to tune metamaterials beyond their fixed point on the electromagnetic spectrum.

The researchers said their landmark achievement opens such devices to a broader array of uses.

"Metamaterials no longer need to be constructed only out of metallic components," said Boston College Physicist Willie Padilla, the project leader. "What we've shown is that one can take the exotic properties of metamaterials and combine them with the unique proprieties of natural materials to form a hybrid that yields superior performance."

The study that included David Shrekenhamer, Hou-Tong Chen, John O'Hara, Abul Azad, Antoinette Tayler and Richard Averitt appears in the online version of the journal Nature Photonics.