Generalized Brewster effect in dielectric metasurfaces

Polarization is a key property defining the state of light. It was discovered by Brewster, while studying light reflected from materials at different angles. This led to the first polarizers, based on Brewster’s effect. Now, one of the trends in photonics is the study of miniaturized devices exhibiting similar, or improved, functionalities compared with bulk optical elements. In this work, it is theoretically predicted that a properly designed all-dielectric metasurface exhibits a generalized Brewster’s effect potentially for any angle, wavelength and polarization of choice. The effect is experimentally demonstrated for an array of silicon nanodisks at visible wavelengths. The underlying physics is related to the suppressed scattering at certain angles due to the interference between the electric and magnetic dipole resonances excited in the nanoparticles. These findings open doors for Brewster phenomenon to new applications in photonics, which are not bonded to a specific polarization or angle of incidence.