Tailored Optical Polarization in Nano-Structured Metamaterials

TL;DR

This paper introduces an efficient computational method for designing nano-structured metamaterials with customizable optical polarization properties, enabling tailored polarization responses across a wide energy spectrum.

Contribution

The paper presents a novel calculation method for effective optical responses, facilitating the design of 2D nano-structured metamaterials with specific polarization functionalities.

Findings

Design of dielectric-inclusion arrays with linear dichroism

Creation of systems acting as circular polarizers

Achievement of tunable circular dichroism over broad energy ranges

Abstract

A very efficient method for the calculation of the effective optical response of nano-structured composite systems allows the design of metamaterials tailored for specific optical polarization properties. We use our method to design 2D periodic arrays of sub-wavelength dielectric inclusions within nanometric supported metallic thin films which behave as either an almost perfect linearly dichroic system, as a controllable source of circular polarized light, as a system with a large circular dichroism, or as a circular polarizer. All of these systems may be tuned over a wide energy range.