Control the polarization state of light with symmetry-broken metallic metastructures

Controlling the polarization state, the transmission direction, the amplitude and the phase of light in a very limited space is essential for the development of on-chip photonics. Over the past decades, numerous sub-wavelength metallic microstructures have been proposed and fabricated to fulfill the...

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Published inAnnals of physics Vol. 358; pp. 129 - 158
Main Authors Xiong, Xiang, Jiang, Shang-Chi, Hu, Yuan-Sheng, Hu, Yu-Hui, Wang, Zheng-Han, Peng, Ru-Wen, Wang, Mu
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published New York Elsevier Inc 01.07.2015
Elsevier BV
Subjects
CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSICS
Conductivity
ELECTRIC CONDUCTIVITY
Magnetic fields
METAMATERIALS
Metastructure
MICROSTRUCTURE
Negative refraction
Physics
POLARIZATION
Polarization manipulation
REFRACTIVE INDEX
Surface plasmon polariton
SYMMETRY BREAKING
THREE-DIMENSIONAL LATTICES
TWO-DIMENSIONAL SYSTEMS
Surface plasmon polariton
Negative refraction
Polarization manipulation
Metastructure
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Summary:Controlling the polarization state, the transmission direction, the amplitude and the phase of light in a very limited space is essential for the development of on-chip photonics. Over the past decades, numerous sub-wavelength metallic microstructures have been proposed and fabricated to fulfill these demands. In this article, we review our efforts in achieving negative refractive index, controlling the polarization state, and tuning the amplitude of light with two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) microstructures. We designed an assembly of stacked metallic U-shaped resonators that allow achieving negative refraction for pure magnetic and electric responses respectively at the same frequency by selecting the polarization of incident light. Based on this, we tune the permittivity and permeability of the structure, and achieve negative refractive index. Further, by control the excitation and radiation of surface electric current on a number of 2D and 3D asymmetric metallic metastructures, we are able to control the polarization state of light. It is also demonstrated that with a stereostructured metal film, the whole metal surfaces can be used to construct either polarization-sensitive or polarization-insensitive prefect absorbers, with the advantage of efficient heat dissipation and electric conductivity. Our practice shows that metamaterials, including metasurface, indeed help to master light in nanoscale, and are promising in the development of new generation of photonics.
ISSN:0003-4916
1096-035X
DOI:10.1016/j.aop.2015.03.008