Perfect Circular Dichroic Metamirrors

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel ultrathin circular dichroic metamirror that selectively reflects left-handed circularly polarized light and absorbs right-handed light, inspired by a natural beetle's iridescence, with potential applications in advanced optical devices.

Contribution

It presents the first design and demonstration of a circular dichroic metamirror using anisotropic metamaterials, based on a new analytical framework and symmetry-breaking principles.

Findings

Achieves perfect reflection of left-handed circularly polarized light.

Nearly complete absorption of right-handed circularly polarized light.

Provides a new methodology for chiral optical device design.

Abstract

In nature, the beetle Chrysina gloriosa derives its iridescence by selectively reflecting left-handed circularly polarized light only. Here, for the first time, we introduce and demonstrate the optical analogue based on an ultrathin metamaterial, which we term circular dichroic metamirror. A general method to design the circular dichroic metasmirror is presented under the framework of Jones calculus. It is analytically shown that the metamirror can be realized by two layers of anisotropic metamaterial structures, in order to satisfy the required simultaneous breakings of n-fold rotational (n>2) and mirror symmetries. We design an infrared metamirror, which shows perfect reflectance for left-handed circularly polarized light without reversing its handedness, while almost completely absorbs right-handed circularly polarized light. These findings offer new methodology to realize novel chiral optical devices for a variety of applications, including polarimetric imaging, molecular spectroscopy, as well as quantum information processing.