A Broadband, Background-Free Quarter-Wave Plate Based on Plasmonic Metasurfaces

Abstract

We demonstrate optically thin quarter-wave plates built with metasurfaces that generate high-quality circularly polarized light over a broad wavelength range for arbitrary orientation of the incident linear polarization. The metasurface consists of an array of plasmonic antennas with spatially varying phase and polarization responses. Experimentally demonstrated quarter-wave plates generate light with a high degree of circular polarization (>0.97) from λ = 5 to 12 μm, representing a major advance in performance compared to previously reported plasmonics-based wave plates.

Abstract of "A Broadband, Background-Free Quarter-Wave Plate Based on Plasmonic Metasurfaces" by Nanfang Yu, Francesco Aieta, Patrice Genevet et al., https://doi.org/10.1021/nl303445u, used under its Creative Commons Attribution license (CC-BY); markup removed, otherwise unmodified.