Abstract
The arbitrary control of the polarization states of light has attracted the interest of the scientific community because of the wide range of modern optical applications that such control can afford. However, conventional polarization control setups are bulky and very often operate only within a narrow wavelength range, thereby resisting optical system miniaturization and integration. Here, we present the basic theory, simulated demonstration, and in-depth analysis of a high-performance broadband and invertible linear-to-circular (LTC) polarization converter composed of a single-layer gold nanorod array with a total thickness of ~λ/70 for the near-infrared regime. This setup can transform a circularly polarized wave into a linearly polarized one or a linearly polarized wave with a wavelength-dependent electric field polarization angle into a circularly polarized one in the transmission mode. The broadband and invertible LTC polarization conversion can be attributed to the tailoring of the light interference at the subwavelength scale via the induction of the anisotropic optical resonance mode. This ultrathin single-layer metasurface relaxes the high-precision requirements of the structure parameters in general metasurfaces while retaining the polarization conversion performance. Our findings open up intriguing possibilities towards the realization of novel integrated metasurface-based photonics devices for polarization manipulation, modulation, and phase retardation.
Highlights
The arbitrary control of the polarization states of light has attracted the interest of the scientific community because of the wide range of modern optical applications that such control can afford
Most of these designs for LTC or CTL polarization conversion in the transmission mode have complicated structural parameters, and their performance is strongly dependent on the resonance of each isolated building block or complex resonances between two layers, which leads to high-precision requirements of the structural parameters in order to ensure satisfactory polarization conversion performance
The proposed broadband and invertible LTC polarization conversion is realized via induction of the anisotropic optical resonance mode of the gold nanorod, and our simple setup is not constrained by the high-precision requirements of the structure parameters
Summary
Converter with Ultrathin Singlereceived: 02 October 2015 accepted: 11 November 2015 Published: 15 December 2015 layer Metasurface. We present the basic theory, simulated demonstration, and in-depth analysis of a high-performance broadband and invertible linear-to-circular (LTC) polarization converter composed of a single-layer gold nanorod array with a total thickness of ~λ/70 for the near-infrared regime This setup can transform a circularly polarized wave into a linearly polarized one or a linearly polarized wave with a wavelengthdependent electric field polarization angle into a circularly polarized one in the transmission mode. The broadband and invertible LTC polarization conversion can be attributed to the tailoring of the light interference at the subwavelength scale via the induction of the anisotropic optical resonance mode This ultrathin single-layer metasurface relaxes the high-precision requirements of the structure parameters in general metasurfaces while retaining the polarization conversion performance. Further analysis reveals that the proposed ultrathin metasurface relaxes the high-precision requirements of the structure parameters in general metasurfaces, which may have a profoundly positive impact on its practical applications
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