Circularly Polarized Photoluminescence from Nanostructured Arrays of Light Emitters

Abstract

Strategically designed metamaterials can influence the properties of light emitters in several ways, including shaping of the directionality and polarization of luminescence. These properties, however, are limited in systems where the luminophores uniformly coat the metamaterial. Here, we study and design metamaterials composed of both Au nanobars and nanopatterned light emitters. We systematically investigate the role of spatial averaging, dipole orientation, chirality, near-field effects, and other factors for these multimaterial systems. Finally, we discuss multiple design routes to create metasurfaces that can emit photoluminescence of any circular polarization at any arbitrary angle. These systems simultaneously exhibit high photoluminescence intensity and tailored, directional, and polarized photoluminescence.