Optically-Nonactive Assorted Helices Array with Interchangeable Magnetic/Electric Resonance

TL;DR

This paper presents a novel metamaterial composed of metallic helices that can switch between electric and magnetic resonances by changing the polarization of incident light, enabling tunable optical properties.

Contribution

It introduces a new design of optically-nonactive metamaterials with interchangeable electric and magnetic resonances using metallic helices with different chirality.

Findings

Pure electric or magnetic resonance achieved with linearly polarized light

Resonance type can be switched at the same frequency by changing polarization

Demonstrates a new approach for tunable metamaterials

Abstract

We report here the designing of optically-nonactive metamaterial by assembling metallic helices with different chirality. With linearly polarized incident light, pure electric or magnetic resonance can be selectively realized, which leads to negative permittivity or negative permeability accordingly. Further, we show that pure electric or magnetic resonance can be interchanged at the same frequency band by merely changing the polarization of incident light for 90 degrees. This design demonstrates a unique approach to construct metamaterial.