paper 150205215255

Abstract

A THz twist polarizer formed by supramolecular Fermat’s spiral chiral metamate- rial (SFSCMM) is reported. Twist polarizers (TPs) are the 90◦ polarization rotators, in which transverse magnetic linear polarization is converted into transverse electric linear polarization and vice versa. The proposed SFSCMM consists of twisted bilayered supramolecular Fermat’s spiral patterns, in which each layer is chiral in nature. The design is implemented in polyimide substrate using silver as a metal. Full-wave simulations demonstrated its function of TP, where the SFSCMM shows the zero-point ellipticity with the polarization rotation angle of 89.49◦ at 7.765 THz. The proposed SFSCMM has a dimension of λ/1.38 × λ/1.38 × λ/10.3 at the operating wavelength and can be fabricated through standard layer-by-layer method for the realization of optical logic gates and THz switches.

1. Tonouchi, Masayoshi, "Cutting-edge terahertz technology," Nature Photonics, Vol. 1, No. 2, 97–105, February 2007.
doi:10.1038/nphoton.2007.3 Google Scholar

2. Svirko, Yuri, Nikolay Zheludev, and Michail Osipov, "Layered chiral metallic microstructures with inductive coupling," Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 78, No. 4, 498–500, January 2001.
doi:10.1063/1.1342210 Google Scholar

3. Papakostas, A., A. Potts, D. M. Bagnall, S. L. Prosvirnin, H. J. Coles, and N. I. Zheludev, "Optical manifestations of planar chirality," Physical Review Letters, Vol. 90, No. 10, March 2003.
doi:10.1103/physrevlett.90.107404 Google Scholar

4. Ye, Yuqian and Sailing He, "90° polarization rotator using a bilayered chiral metamaterial with giant optical activity," Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 96, No. 20, May 2010.
doi:10.1063/1.3429683 Google Scholar

5. Decker, M., R. Zhao, C. M. Soukoulis, S. Linden, and M. Wegener, "Twisted split-ring-resonator photonic metamaterial with huge optical activity," Optics Letters, Vol. 35, No. 10, 1593, May 2010.
doi:10.1364/ol.35.001593 Google Scholar

6. Kenanakis, G., R. Zhao, A. Stavrinidis, G. Konstantinidis, N. Katsarakis, and M. Kafesaki, "A comparative study of various designs," Opt. Mat. Exp., Vol. 2, No. 12, 1702-1712, 2012. Google Scholar

7. Yan, Fei, Calvin Yu, Hongkyu Park, Edward P. J. Parrott, and Emma Pickwell-MacPherson, "Advances in polarizer technology for terahertz frequency applications," Journal of Infrared, Millimeter, and Terahertz Waves, Vol. 34, No. 9, 489–499, July 2013.
doi:10.1007/s10762-013-0005-4 Google Scholar

8. Mutlu, Mehmet and Ekmel Ozbay, "A transparent 90° polarization rotator by combining chirality and electromagnetic wave tunneling," Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 100, No. 5, January 2012.
doi:10.1063/1.3682591 Google Scholar

9. Song, Kun, Yahong Liu, Quanhong Fu, Xiaopeng Zhao, Chunrong Luo, and Weiren Zhu, "90° polarization rotator with rotation angle independent of substrate permittivity and incident angles using a composite chiral metamaterial," Optics Express, Vol. 21, No. 6, 7439, March 2013.
doi:10.1364/oe.21.007439 Google Scholar

10. Xi, Caiping, "Terahertz angle-insensitive 90° polarization rotator using chiral metamaterial," Physica B: Condensed Matter, Vol. 422, 83–86, August 2013.
doi:10.1016/j.physb.2013.04.045 Google Scholar

11. Kwon, Do-Hoon, Pingjuan L. Werner, and Douglas H. Werner, "Optical planar chiral metamaterial designs for strong circular dichroism and polarization rotation," Optics Express, Vol. 16, No. 16, 11802, July 2008.
doi:10.1364/oe.16.011802 Google Scholar

12. Valev, Ventsislav K., Jeremy J. Baumberg, Concita Sibilia, and Thierry Verbiest, "Chirality and chiroptical effects in plasmonic nanostructures: Fundamentals, recent progress, and outlook," Advanced Materials, Vol. 25, No. 18, 2517–2534, April 2013.
doi:10.1002/adma.201205178 Google Scholar

13. Liu, Na and Harald Giessen, "Coupling effects in optical metamaterials," Angewandte Chemie International Edition, Vol. 49, No. 51, 9838–9852, December 2010.
doi:10.1002/anie.200906211 Google Scholar

14. Zhou, Lei, Weijia Wen, C. T. Chan, and Ping Sheng, "Electromagnetic-wave tunneling through negative-permittivity media with high magnetic fields," Physical Review Letters, Vol. 94, No. 24, June 2005.
doi:10.1103/physrevlett.94.243905 Google Scholar

15. Grady, Nathaniel K., Jane E. Heyes, Dibakar Roy Chowdhury, Yong Zeng, Matthew T. Reiten, Abul K. Azad, Antoinette J. Taylor, Diego A. R. Dalvit, and Hou-Tong Chen, "Terahertz metamaterials for linear polarization conversion and anomalous refraction," Science, Vol. 340, No. 6138, 1304–1307, June 2013.
doi:10.1126/science.1235399 Google Scholar

16. Zhu, Weiren, Ivan D. Rukhlenko, Fajun Xiao, and Malin Premaratne, "Polarization conversion in U-shaped chiral metamaterial with four-fold symmetry breaking," Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 115, No. 14, April 2014.
doi:10.1063/1.4870862 Google Scholar

17. Niemi, Teemu, Antti O. Karilainen, and Sergei A. Tretyakov, "Synthesis of polarization transformers," IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, Vol. 61, No. 6, 3102–3111, June 2013.
doi:10.1109/tap.2013.2252136 Google Scholar

Zhengbiao Ouyang

Yogesh Natesan

Quanqiang Yu