A broadband, background-free quarter-wave plate based on plasmonic metasurfaces.

Yu, Nanfang; Aieta, Francesco; Genevet, Patrice; Kats, Mikhail A; Gaburro, Zeno; Capasso, Federico · Nano Lett · 2012

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

We demonstrate optically thin quarter-wave plates built with metasurfaces that generate high-quality circularly polarized light over a broad wavelength range for arbitrary orientation of the incident linear polarization. The metasurface consists of an array of plasmonic antennas with spatially varying phase and polarization responses. Experimentally demonstrated quarter-wave plates generate light with a high degree of circular polarization (>0.97) from λ = 5 to 12 μm, representing a major advance in performance compared to previously reported plasmonics-based wave plates.

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