Coherent control of optical polarization effects in metamaterials.

Seyedmohammad A Mousavi,Jinhui Shi,Eric Plum,Nikolay I Zheludev

doi:10.1038/srep08977

Abstract

Processing of photonic information usually relies on electronics. Aiming to avoid the conversion between photonic and electronic signals, modulation of light with light based on optical nonlinearity has become a major research field and coherent optical effects on the nanoscale are emerging as new means of handling and distributing signals. Here we demonstrate that in slabs of linear material of sub-wavelength thickness optical manifestations of birefringence and optical activity (linear and circular birefringence and dichroism) can be controlled by a wave coherent with the wave probing the polarization effect. We demonstrate this in proof-of-principle experiments for chiral and anisotropic microwave metamaterials, where we show that the large parameter space of polarization characteristics may be accessed at will by coherent control. Such control can be exerted at arbitrarily low intensities, thus arguably allowing for fast handling of electromagnetic signals without facing thermal management and energy challenges.

Highlights

Processing of photonic information usually relies on electronics
Aiming to avoid the conversion between photonic and electronic signals, modulation of light with light based on optical nonlinearity has become a major research field and coherent optical effects on the nanoscale are emerging as new means of handling and distributing signals
We study coherent polarization control for three well-understood metamaterials that are representative of thin anisotropic materials and thin materials exhibiting optical activity due to intrinsic and extrinsic 3D chirality (Figs 3–6, Refs. 11, 12, 38)

Summary

Introduction

Processing of photonic information usually relies on electronics. Aiming to avoid the conversion between photonic and electronic signals, modulation of light with light based on optical nonlinearity has become a major research field and coherent optical effects on the nanoscale are emerging as new means of handling and distributing signals. Ultra-thin absorbers[1], spectral filters[2,3], wave plates[4], linear polarizers[5], highly birefringent hyperbolic materials[6], optically active materials[7,8,9,10,11,12], phase gradient surfaces[13] and lenses[14,15] have been demonstrated This provides an opportunity to exploit coherent optical effects, which are attracting considerable attention as new means of controlling the interaction of electromagnetic fields with photonic structures[16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26], including control of intensity[27] and direction[28] of electromagnetic waves at arbitrarily low intensities down to the quantum regime[29]. Optical anisotropy is found in many crystals (e.g. calcite, quartz and magnesium fluoride) and linear birefringence is exploited in wave plates[4], while linear dichroism is the basis of thin film linear polarizers[5]

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion