Open AccessOptical vector field rotation and switching with near-unity transmission by fully developed chiral photonic crystals
Author(s) -
Chun-Wei Chen,
Iam Choon Khoo
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
proceedings of the national academy of sciences of the united states of america
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 5.011
H-Index - 771
eISSN - 1091-6490
pISSN - 0027-8424
DOI - 10.1073/pnas.2021304118
Subject(s) - birefringence , polarization (electrochemistry) , optical rotation , optics , femtosecond , ultrashort pulse , picosecond , metamaterial , photonic crystal , optoelectronics , materials science , photonics , laser , physics , chemistry
Significance We demonstrate by theory and experiments that a liquid crystal–based chiral photonic crystal (CPC), fabricated with a field-assisted molecular self-assembly technique to an unprecedented number (N > 1,000) of unit cells, will achieve the full potentials of an ideal (N → ∞) CPC. Such high-N CPCs possess large optical rotatory power with near-unity transmission, work equally well on lasers of simple or complex vector fields, and allow dynamic polarization switching and control by virtue of field-induced index/birefringence changing mechanisms at modest or ultrafast speeds. They are highly promising alternatives to current state-of-the-art polarization manipulation optics that exhibit giant optical rotatory power but are generally passive and beset with large optical loss.