IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v8y2017i1d10.1038_ncomms14602.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Intensity-dependent modulation of optically active signals in a chiral metamaterial

Author

Listed:
  • Sean P. Rodrigues

    (School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology
    School of Materials Science and Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology)

  • Shoufeng Lan

    (School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology)

  • Lei Kang

    (School of Materials Science and Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology)

  • Yonghao Cui

    (School of Materials Science and Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology)

  • Patrick W. Panuski

    (School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology)

  • Shengxiang Wang

    (School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology
    School of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, Wuhan Textile University)

  • Augustine M. Urbas

    (Air Force Research Laboratory, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base)

  • Wenshan Cai

    (School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology
    School of Materials Science and Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology)

Abstract

Chiral media exhibit optical phenomena that provide distinctive responses from opposite circular polarizations. The disparity between these responses can be optimized by structurally engineering absorptive materials into chiral nanopatterns to form metamaterials that provide gigantic chiroptical resonances. To fully leverage the innate duality of chiral metamaterials for future optical technologies, it is essential to make such chiroptical responses tunable via external means. Here we report an optical metamaterial with tailored chiroptical effects in the nonlinear regime, which exhibits a pronounced shift in its circular dichroism spectrum under a modest level of excitation power. Strong nonlinear optical rotation is observed at key spectral locations, with an intensity-induced change of 14° in the polarization rotation from a metamaterial thickness of less than λ/7. The modulation of chiroptical responses by manipulation of input powers incident on chiral metamaterials offers potential for active optics such as all-optical switching and light modulation.

Suggested Citation

  • Sean P. Rodrigues & Shoufeng Lan & Lei Kang & Yonghao Cui & Patrick W. Panuski & Shengxiang Wang & Augustine M. Urbas & Wenshan Cai, 2017. "Intensity-dependent modulation of optically active signals in a chiral metamaterial," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 8(1), pages 1-8, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:8:y:2017:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms14602
    DOI: 10.1038/ncomms14602
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms14602
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/ncomms14602?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:8:y:2017:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms14602. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.