Chiral metamaterial composed of three-dimensional plasmonic nanostructures.

Helgert, Christian; Pshenay-Severin, Ekaterina; Falkner, Matthias; Menzel, Christoph; Rockstuhl, Carsten; Kley, Ernst-Bernhard; Tünnermann, Andreas; Lederer, Falk et al. · Nano Lett · 2011

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

We introduce a top-down fabricated metamaterial composed of three-dimensional, chiral, plasmonic nanostructures for visible and near-infrared wavelengths. Based on a combined spectroscopic and interferometric characterization, the entire complex transmission response in terms of a Jones matrix is disclosed. Particularly, the polarization output state of light after propagation through the nanostructures can be decoded from the measurements for any excitation configuration. We experimentally found a rotation of the polarization azimuth of linearly polarized light exceeding 50° at wavelengths around 1.08 μm. This corresponds to a specific rotation which is significantly larger than that of any linear, passive, and reciprocal medium reported to date.