Output details
13 - Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Metallurgy and Materials
University of Southampton
Metamaterials: optical activity without chirality
Significance of output:
This paper introduces the novel concept of extrinsic chirality to metamaterials. Contrary to conventional wisdom, it demonstrates that optical activity does occur in non-chiral materials, if the incident beam’s direction breaks the experimental symmetry. This causes record-breaking 60deg polarization rotation in a functional layer only 1/30th wavelength thick. This work led to invited talks at SPIE2009 and PIERS2011 and it forms the basis of a patented spectral filter technology (UK patent application 1006944.1 filed 26.4.2010). While prior art required complex three-dimensional structures to achieve polarization rotation, here, a simple patterned metal film is sufficient to achieve a larger tunable effect.
