Towards Polarization Routing of Magnetic and Electric Dipolar Emission with Dielectric Metasurfaces

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates how dielectric metasurfaces can be engineered to control and route the polarization-dependent emission of magnetic and electric dipolar transitions in europium ions, enabling selective emission channeling.

Contribution

It introduces a novel dielectric metasurface design that selectively enhances and routes magnetic and electric dipolar emissions into different polarization channels based on engineered local density of states.

Findings

Polarization-dependent emission behavior confirmed by spectroscopy and imaging.

Magnetic dipole emission is enhanced with magnetic field amplification.

Selective routing of multipolar emission into specific polarization channels achieved.

Abstract

We investigate the polarization properties of emission associated with the magnetic dipole and electric dipole transitions of europium(III) coupled to an anisotropic dielectric metasurface with polarization-engineered electric and magnetic photonic local density of states. The metasurface consists of a square array of Mie-resonant elliptical a-Si:H dimers situated on an SiO$_2$ substrate and embedded in a PMMA film containing Eu(TTA)$_3$. Based on reciprocity principle, it was designed to achieve maximum electric (magnetic) field enhancement in the dimer gap at 610 nm (590 nm) for $x$-polarized ($y$-polarized) normally incident light in order to selectively enhance the electric dipole (magnetic dipole) emission into the $x$-polarized ($y$-polarized) emission channel, respectively. Momentum-resolved spectroscopy and back-focal plane imaging of emission of the fabricated light-emitting metasurface clearly reveal the intended polarization-dependent emission behaviour, with the $x$-polarized ($y$-polarized) emission showing a reduced (enhanced) ratio of the magnetic-/electric dipole emission intensity, correspondingly where the magnetic dipole emission is enhanced with a magnetic field enhancement from the nanostructures. The demonstrated polarization-dependent interaction of a designed nanostructure with the electric- and magnetic dipolar transitions of trivalent lanthanide ions opens an avenue towards routing of emission of different multipolar orders into different polarization channels.