Polarization conversion based on plasmonic phase control by an ultra-thin metallic nano-strips

Abstract

Ultra-thin metallic nano-strips (thinner than skin depth) can lead to anomalous reflection for a transverse magnetic (TM) incidence of some wave-lengths, due to the phase modulation of localized surface plasmon resonance. Based on the principle above, we proposed a method of polarization modulation using ultra-thin metallic nano-strips. When irradiating nano-strips vertically by light with a given polarized angle, we can utilize the phase difference of the TM transmission and transverse electric (TE) transmission near anomalous reflection region to modulate transmission polarization. We have designed and fabricated the ultra-thin metallic nano-strips with the function of quarter-wave plate, the attained transmission Stokes parameter S3 is 0.95. The nano-strips is easy to design and fabricate, also compatible with other optics devices, hence has the potential applications in integrated optics field.