Wide-angle 90°-polarization rotator using chiral metamaterial with negative refractive index

Abstract

We present a novel planar chiral metamaterial (CMM) that can realize the intriguing phenomenon of 90°-polarization rotation to the electromagnetic wave incidence with a linear polarization. This CMM consists of fourfold-symmetrically conjugated metallic pairs, which exhibits a circular dichroism and a giant optical activity. The fascinating 90°-polarization rotation of electromagnetic wave for a wide angle of incidence is demonstrated by both simulations and experiments. To be specific, the rotation angle per wavelength in our design is as large as 3400°/λ, implying that the chirality is significantly stronger than any other planar CMMs reported previously. Due to the giant chirality, the negative refractive index is achieved for circularly polarized waves.