Circular Dichroism Metamirrors with Near-Perfect Extinction

Abstract

In nature, the beetle Chrysina gloriosa derives its iridescence by selectively reflecting left-handed circularly polarized light only. Here, an optical analogue is suggested based on an ultrathin metamaterial, which is termed circular dichroism metamirror. A general method to design the circular dichroism metasmirror is presented under the framework of Jones calculus. It is analytically shown that the building block of such a metamirror needs to simultaneously break the n-fold rotational (n > 2) symmetry and mirror symmetry. By combining two layers of anisotropic metamaterial structures, a circular dichroism metamirror is designed in the mid-infrared region, which shows perfect reflectance for left-handed circularly polarized light without reversing its handedness, while it almost completely absorbs right-handed circularly polarized light. These findings offer a new methodology to implement novel photonic devices for a variety of applications, including polarimetric imaging, molecular spectroscopy, and quantum information processing.