Terahertz (THz) chirality pursues customizable manipulation from narrowband to broadband. While conventional THz chirality is restricted by non-negligible linewidth and unable to handle narrowband well. Recently, the concept "quasi bound states in continuum" (quasi-BIC) is introduced to optics resonance system whose the quality factor can be extremely high with the ultra-low radiative loss, thus providing a conceptual feasibility for wave control with ultra-narrow linewidth. Herein, we construct quasi-BIC in a planar all-silicon THz metasurface with in-plane C2 and mirror symmetries breaking. Such system not only exposes the symmetry-protected BIC, but also exposes the parameter-tuned BIC assigned to single resonance type. An extremely narrow linewidth (below 0.06 GHz) with high quality factor (104 level) is obtained at quasi-BIC frequency, which achieves the ultra-narrowband THz chirality.
We use numerical simulations to demonstrate third-harmonic generation with near-unity nonlinear circular dichroism (CD) and high conversion efficiency ($ 10^{-2}\ \text{W}^{-2}$) in asymmetric Si-on-SiO$_2$ metasurfaces. The working principle relies on the selective excitation of a quasi-bound state in the continuum, characterized by a very high ($>10^5$) quality-factor. By tuning multi-mode interference with the variation of the metasurface geometrical parameters, we show the possibility of independent control of linear CD and nonlinear CD. Our results pave the way for the development of all-…
Optical metasurfaces have come into the spotlight as a promising platform for light manipulation at the nanoscale, including ultrafast all-optical control via excitation with femtosecond laser pulses. Recently, dichroic metasurfaces have been exploited to modulate the polarization state of light with unprecedented speed. Here, we theoretically predict and experimentally demonstrate by pump-probe spectroscopy the capability to reconfigure the ultrafast dichroic signal of a gold metasurface by simply acting on the polarization of the pump pulse, which is shown to reshape the spatio-temporal dist…
The control of polarization, an essential property of light, is of wide scientific and technological interest. Polarizer is an indispensable optical element for direct polarization generations. Except common linear and circular polarizations, however, arbitrary polarization generation heavily resorts to bulky optical components by cascading linear polarizers and waveplates. Here, we present a general strategy for designing all-in-one full Poincaré sphere polarizers based on perfect arbitrary polarization conversion dichroism, and realize it in a monolayer all-dielectric metasurface. It allows …
We propose a Babinet-invertible chiral metasurface for achieving dynamically reversible and strong circular dichroism (CD). The proposed metasurface is composed of VO$_2$-metal hybrid structure, and when VO$_2$ transits between the dielectric state and the metallic state, the metasurface unit cell switches between complementary structures that are designed according to the Babinet principle. This leads to a large and reversible CD tuning range between $\pm 0.5$ at 0.97~THz, which is larger than the literature. We attribute the CD effect to extrinsic chirality of the proposed metasurface. We en…
Metasurfaces consisting of an array of planar sub-wavelength structures have shown great potentials in controlling thermal infrared radiation, including intensity, coherence, and polarization. These capabilities together with the two-dimensional nature make thermal metasurfaces an ultracompact multifunctional platform for infrared light manipulation. Integrating the functionalities, such as amplitude, phase (spectrum and directionality), and polarization, on a single metasurface offers fascinating device responses. However, it remains a significant challenge to concurrently optimize the optica…
A coupled dielectric-metal metasurface (CDMM) consisting of amorphous silicon (a-$\textit{Si}$) rings and subwavelength holes in $\textit{Au}$ layer separated by a $\textit{SiO}_{2}$ layer is presented. The design parameters of the CDMM is numerically optimized to have a polarization independent peak transmittance of 0.55 at 1540 nm with a Full Width at Half Maximum ($FWHM$) of 10 nm. The filter also has a 100 nm quite zone with $\sim 10^{-2}$ transmittance. A radiating two-oscillator model reveals the fundamental resonances in the filter which interfere to produce the electromagnetically indu…
Ultrafast nanophotonics is an emerging research field aimed at the development of nanodevices capable of light modulation with unprecedented speed. A promising approach exploits the optical nonlinearity of nanostructured materials (either metallic or dielectric) to modulate their effective permittivity via interaction with intense ultrashort laser pulses. While the ultrafast temporal dynamics of such nanostructures following photoexcitation has been studied in depth, sub-ps transient spatial inhomogeneities taking place at the nanoscale have been so far almost ignored. Here we theoretically pr…
Strong enhancement of molecular circular dichroism has the potential to enable efficient asymmetric photolysis, a method of chiral separation that has conventionally been impeded by insufficient yield and low enantiomeric excess. Here, we study experimentally how predicted enhancements in optical chirality density near resonant silicon nanodisks boost circular dichroism. We use fluorescence-detected circular dichroism spectroscopy to measure indirectly the differential absorption of circularly polarized light by a monolayer of optically active molecules functionalized to silicon nanodisk array…
Chiral nanophotonic devices are promising candidates for chiral molecules sensing, polarization diverse nanophotonics and display technologies. Active chiral nanophotonic devices, where the optical chirality can be controlled by an external stimulus has triggered great research interest. However, efficient modulation of the optical chirality has been challenging. Here, we demonstrate switching of the extrinsic chirality by applied magnetic fields in a magneto-plasmonic metasurface device based on a magneto-optical oxide material, Ce1Y2Fe5O12 (Ce:YIG). Thanks to the low optical loss and strong …
Photons with spin angular momentum possess intrinsic chirality which underpins many phenomena including nonlinear optics1, quantum optics2, topological photonics3 and chiroptics4. Intrinsic chirality is weak in natural materials, and recent theoretical proposals5-7 aimed to enlarge circular dichroism by resonant metasurfaces supporting bound states in the continuum that enhance substantially chiral light-matter interaction. Those insightful works resort to three-dimensional sophisticated geometries, which are too challenging to be realized for optical frequencies8. Therefore, most of the exper…
Metasurfaces have emerged as a promising technology for the manipulation of electromagnetic waves within a thin layer. In planar ultrathin metasurfaces, there exist rigorous narrowband design methods, based on the equivalent surface impedance of patterned metallic layers on dielectric substrates. In this work, we derive a limit on bandwidth achievable in these metasurfaces, based on constraints that their meta-atoms should be passive, causal and lossless, and that they should obey the time-bandwidth product rules of a single resonance structure. The results show that in addition to elementary …
We study the resonant enhancement of linear and nonlinear chiroptical effects in asymmetric silicon metasurfaces supporting multipolar Mie resonances and quasi-bound states in the continuum (quasi-BICs). We demonstrate theoretically and observe in experiment the pronounced linear circular dichroism at the quasi-BIC resonances. We further find that both local field enhancement and third-harmonic signal are large for Mie resonances and some quasi-BIC modes. We explain the selectivity of the nonlinear enhancement by employing the concept of critical coupling being more favorable for the modes wit…
Actively tunable, narrowband spectral filtering across arbitrary optical wavebands is highly desirable in a plethora of applications, from chemical sensing, hyperspectral imaging to infrared astronomy. Yet, the ability to actively reconfigure the optical properties of a solid-state narrowband filter remains elusive. Existing solutions require either moving parts, have slow response times or provide limited spectral coverage. Here, we demonstrate a continuously tunable, spectrally-agnostic, all-solid-state, narrowband phase-change metasurface filter based on a GeSbTe (GST)-embedded plasmonic na…
We demonstrate that rotationally symmetric chiral metasurfaces can support arbitrarily sharp resonances with the maximum optical chirality determined by precise shaping of bound states in the continuum (BICs). Being uncoupled from one circular polarisation of light and resonantly coupled to its counterpart, a metasurface hosting the chiral BIC resonance exhibits a narrow peak in the circular dichroism spectrum. We propose a realization of such chiral BIC metasurfaces based on pairs of dielectric bars and validate the concept of maximum chirality by numerical simulations
Optical metasurfaces with high-Q chiral resonances can boost light-matter interaction for various applications of chiral response for ultrathin, active, and nonlinear metadevices. Usually, such metasurfaces require sophisticated depth-resolved nanofabrication to realize subwavelength stereo-nanostructures, posing overwhelming challenges, especially in the short-wavelength range. Here, we suggest a novel planar design for chiral metasurfaces supporting bound states in the continuum (BICs) and demonstrate experimentally chiroptical responses with record-high Q-factors (Q=390) and near-perfect ci…
Topological Dirac semimetals (TDSM), such as Cd$_3$As$_2$ and Na$_3$Bi, exhibits strong optical dichroism with contrasting dielectric permittivity along different crystal axes. However, such optical dichroism is often overlooked in the study of TDSM-based optoelectronic devices, and whether such optical dichroism can lead to unique functionalities not found under the isotropic approximation remain an open question thus far. Here we show that the optical dischroism in TDSM lead to starkly different terahertz (THz) responses and device performance as compared to the isotropic case. Using finite-…
Electromagnetic fields coupled with mechanical degrees of freedom have recently shown exceptional and innovative applications, ultimately leading to mesoscopic optomechanical devices operating in the quantum regime of motion. Simultaneously, micromechanical elements have provided new ways to enhance and manipulate the optical properties of passive photonic elements. Following this concept, in this article we show how combining a chiral metasurface with a GaAs suspended micromembrane can offer new scenarios for controlling the polarization state of near-infrared light beams. Starting from the u…
Dynamically switchable half-/quarter-wave plates have recently been the focus in the terahertz regime. Conventional design philosophy leads to multilayer metamaterials or narrowband metasurfaces. Here we propose a novel design philosophy and a VO2-metal hybrid metasurface for achieving broadband dynamically switchable half-/quarter-wave plate (HWP/QWP) based on the transition from the overdamped to the underdamped resonance. Results show that, by varying the VO2 conductivity by three orders of magnitude, the proposed metasurface's function can be switched between an HWP with polarization conve…
Upon using fundamental electromagnetic properties of metasurfaces we build a platform to classify reciprocal bianisotropic metasurfaces from typical experimental measurements and determine isotropic, anisotropic, bi-isotropic (chiral), and bianisotropic (so-called omega) properties. We provide experimental guidelines to identify each class by measuring macroscopic scattering parameters, i.e., reflection and transmission coefficients upon plane wave illumination with linear and/or circular polarization. We explicitly provide a recipe of what metasurface properties can and cannot be inferred by …
Nanophotonic chiral antennas exhibit orders of magnitude higher circular dichroism (CD) compared to molecular systems. Merging magnetism and structural chirality at the nanometric level allows for the efficient magnetic control of the dichroic response, bringing exciting new prospects to active nanophotonic devices and magnetochirality. Here we devise macroscale enantiomeric magnetophotonic metasurfaces of plasmon and ferromagnetic spiral antennas. Mixed 2D- and 3D- chiral nanoantennas induce large CD response, where we identify reciprocal and non-reciprocal contributions. The simultaneous chi…
Optical Control of Chirality by Ultrafast Symmetry Breaking in Membrane Metasurfaces
École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)（洛桑联邦理工学院）；Shubnikov Institute of Crystallography, NRC “Kurchatov Institute”（库尔恰托夫国家研究中心舒比尼科夫晶体学研究所）；School of Physics and Engineering, ITMO University（ITMO大学物理与工程学院）；University of Brescia（布雷西亚大学）；Qingdao Innovation and Development Center, Harbin Engineering University（哈尔滨工程大学青岛创新发展基地）；Theoretical Physics and Quantum Technologies Department, National University of Science and Technology ‘MISIS’（莫斯科国立科学技术大学“MISIS”理论与量子技术系）
The circular dichroism (ICD) induced from interaction of chiral molecules with achiral plasmonic metal nanostructures has improved sensitivity of molecular chirality detection. Although experimental results have presented several orders magnitude of ICD enhancement, but the cause of ICD induction has not arise from previous studies. In this paper, a theory presented for explain mechanism of ICD induction from near field interaction of chiral molecule with achiral nanostructure. By introducing dipole approaching of chiral molecule and a near field approximation of molecule-nanostructure interac…
Metasurfaces, the two-dimensional analogues of metamaterials, are ideal platforms for sensing molecular chirality at the nanoscale, e.g. of inclusions of natural optically active molecules, as they offer large accessible areas (they are essentially surfaces) and can accommodate the necessary strong resonances for coupling the probing radiation with the chiral inclusions. Here, we examine theoretically achiral isotropic metasurfaces, and we treat them as polarizable surfaces that support resonant electric and magnetic currents, which are coupled via the chiral inclusions. We derive analytically…
Chiral response is of tremendous importance to many fields, such as analytical chemistry, polarization manipulation and biological sensing. Here, a chiral metasurface based on rectangular holes is systematically investigated. The results show that the chirality is closely related to the size and the orientation of resonance unit. It is found that the period of the structure is always smaller than the wavelength at which chirality appears, which will provide a good basis for the design of chiral structures. More importantly, the CD is highly sensitive to the orientation of resonance unit. By ad…
We investigate the resonant optical response of single material-anisotropic nanoparticles (NPs) of molybdenum disulfide (MoS$_2$) and their two-dimensional arrays (metasurfaces) irradiated by plane waves of the telecomunication optical range. Nanoparticles in the form of a disk with centered and shifted hole are considered. Using the recently experimental measured the MoS$_2$ dielectric permittivity and numerical calculations with analytical multipole analysis, we show that the material-anisotropy of NPs can lead to specific nonlocal contributions in their magnetic and electric dipole response…
The spin-selective reflection to introduce chirality which can have a lot of applications in real life such as spectroscopy, optical setups, media industry etc. In this paper, a reflection based metasurface proposed to introduce the giant chiroptical effects at broadband visible and infrared (IR) regimes. The optimization and results of basic unit also termed as nanostructure are demonstrated here. The reflectance at the optimal parameters for the proposed nanostructure shows the inclusion of multiband giant chiroptical effects in reflection mode. The results show that this metasurface can eli…
