Specular optical activity of achiral metasurfaces
Specular optical activity of achiral metasurfaces
Optical activity in 3D-chiral media in the form of circular dichroism and birefringence is a fundamental phenomenon that serves as evidence of life forms and is widely used in spectroscopy. Even in 3D-chiral media exhibiting strong transmission optical activity, the reflective effect is weak and sometimes undetectable. Here we report that specular optical activity at structured interfaces can be very strong. Resonant polarization rotation reaching 25° and reflectivity contrast exceeding 50% for oppositely circularly polarized waves are observed for microwaves reflected by a metasurface with structural elements lacking two-fold rotational symmetry. The effect arises at oblique incidence from a 3D-chiral arrangement of the wave's direction and the metasurface's structure that itself does not possess chiral elements. Specular optical activity of such magnitude is unprecedented. It is fundamentally different from the polarization effects occurring upon scattering, reflection and transmission from surfaces with 2D-chiral patterns. The scale of the effect allows applications in polarization sensitive devices and surface spectroscopies.
Plum, Eric
50761a26-2982-40df-9153-7aecc4226eb5
Fedotov, Vassili A.
3725f5cc-2d0b-4e61-95c5-26d187c84f25
Zheludev, Nikolay I.
32fb6af7-97e4-4d11-bca6-805745e40cc6
5 April 2016
Plum, Eric
50761a26-2982-40df-9153-7aecc4226eb5
Fedotov, Vassili A.
3725f5cc-2d0b-4e61-95c5-26d187c84f25
Zheludev, Nikolay I.
32fb6af7-97e4-4d11-bca6-805745e40cc6
Plum, Eric, Fedotov, Vassili A. and Zheludev, Nikolay I.
(2016)
Specular optical activity of achiral metasurfaces.
Applied Physics Letters, 108 (14), [141905].
(doi:10.1063/1.4944775).
Abstract
Optical activity in 3D-chiral media in the form of circular dichroism and birefringence is a fundamental phenomenon that serves as evidence of life forms and is widely used in spectroscopy. Even in 3D-chiral media exhibiting strong transmission optical activity, the reflective effect is weak and sometimes undetectable. Here we report that specular optical activity at structured interfaces can be very strong. Resonant polarization rotation reaching 25° and reflectivity contrast exceeding 50% for oppositely circularly polarized waves are observed for microwaves reflected by a metasurface with structural elements lacking two-fold rotational symmetry. The effect arises at oblique incidence from a 3D-chiral arrangement of the wave's direction and the metasurface's structure that itself does not possess chiral elements. Specular optical activity of such magnitude is unprecedented. It is fundamentally different from the polarization effects occurring upon scattering, reflection and transmission from surfaces with 2D-chiral patterns. The scale of the effect allows applications in polarization sensitive devices and surface spectroscopies.
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specular optical activity 7rev.pdf
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Accepted/In Press date: 7 March 2016
e-pub ahead of print date: 5 April 2016
Published date: 5 April 2016
Organisations:
Optoelectronics Research Centre
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Local EPrints ID: 389739
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/389739
ISSN: 0003-6951
PURE UUID: b9e2cc4f-3f79-4242-812a-2b4807d23543
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Date deposited: 14 Mar 2016 14:13
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 03:32
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Author:
Vassili A. Fedotov
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