Electrical tuning of the polarization state of light using graphene-integrated anisotropic metasurfaces

Year: 2017

Authors: Dutta-Gupta S., Dabidian N., Kholmanov I., Belkin MA., Shvets G.

Autors Affiliation: Univ Texas Austin, Dept Phys, Austin, TX 78712 USA; Univ Texas Austin, Ctr Nano & Mol Sci & Technol, Austin, TX 78712 USA; Univ Texas Austin, Dept Mech Engn, Austin, TX 78712 USA; Univ Texas Austin, Mat Sci Program, Austin, TX 78712 USA; Univ Texas Austin, Microelect Res Ctr, Dept Elect & Comp Engn, 10100 Burnet Rd, Austin, TX 78758 USA; Univ Brescia, CNR INO, Sensor Lab, I-25123 Brescia, Italy; Cornell Univ, Sch Appl & Engn Phys, Ithaca, NY 14853 USA.

Abstract: Plasmonic metasurfaces have been employed for moulding the flow of transmitted and reflected light, thereby enabling numerous applications that benefit from their ultra-thin sub-wavelength format. Their appeal is further enhanced by the incorporation of active electro-optic elements, paving the way for dynamic control of light’s properties. In this paper, we realize a dynamic polarization state generator using a graphene-integrated anisotropic metasurface (GIAM) that converts the linear polarization of the incident light into an elliptical one. This is accomplished by using an anisotropic metasurface with two principal polarization axes, one of which possesses a Fano-type resonance. A gate-controlled single-layer graphene integrated with the metasurface was employed as an electro-optic element controlling the phase and intensity of light polarized along the resonant axis of the GIAM. When the incident light is polarized at an angle to the resonant axis of the metasurface, the ellipticity of the reflected light can be dynamically controlled by the application of a gate voltage. Thus accomplished dynamic polarization control is experimentally demonstrated and characterized by measuring the Stokes polarization parameters. Large changes of the ellipticity and the tilt angle of the polarization ellipse are observed. Our measurements show that the tilt angle can be changed from positive values through zero to negative values while keeping the ellipticity constant, potentially paving the way to rapid ellipsometry and other characterization techniques requiring fast polarization shifting.
This article is part of the themed issue ‘New horizons for nanophotonics’.

Journal/Review: PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY SERIES A-MATHEMATICAL PHYSICAL AND ENGINEERING SCIENCES

Volume: 375 (2090)      Pages from: 20160061-1  to: 20160061-11

More Information: This work was supported by the Office of Naval Research (ONR) Award N00014-13-1-0837 and by the National Science Foundation (NSF) Award DMR 1611379. M.A.B. acknowledges support from the Welch Foundation grant no. F-1705. We also acknowledge the assistance of Babak Fallahazad with electric characterization of the graphene sample.
KeyWords: active metasurface; graphene; polarization
DOI: 10.1098/rsta.2016.0061

Citations: 23
data from “WEB OF SCIENCE” (of Thomson Reuters) are update at: 2024-11-17
References taken from IsiWeb of Knowledge: (subscribers only)
Connecting to view paper tab on IsiWeb: Click here
Connecting to view citations from IsiWeb: Click here