Open AccessDepolarization of a randomly distributed plasmonic meander metasurface characterized by Mueller matrix spectroscopic ellipsometry
Author(s) -
Liwei Fu,
Audrey Berrier,
Huiyu Li,
Philipp Schau,
Karsten Frenner,
Martin Dressel,
Wolfgang Osten
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
optics express
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.394
H-Index - 271
ISSN - 1094-4087
DOI - 10.1364/oe.24.028056
Subject(s) - optics , mueller calculus , materials science , ellipsometry , polarization (electrochemistry) , refractive index , plasmon , circular polarization , surface plasmon , optoelectronics , surface plasmon polariton , dielectric , polarimetry , physics , thin film , scattering , nanotechnology , microstrip , chemistry
Metallic nanostructures offer efficient solutions in polarization control with a very low thickness. In this report, we investigate the optical properties of a nano-fabricated plasmonic pseudo-depolarizer using Mueller matrix spectroscopic ellipsometry in transmission configuration. The depolarizer is composed of 256 square cells, each containing a periodically corrugated metallic film with random orientation. The full Mueller matrix was analyzed as a function of incident angle in a range between 0 and 20° and over the whole rotation angle range. Depolarization could be achieved in two visible wavelength regions around the short-range and long-range surface plasmon polariton frequencies, respectively. Furthermore, depolarization for circularly polarized light was 2.5 times stronger than that for linearly polarized light. Our results could work as a guidance for realizing a broadband high efficiency dielectric metasurface depolarizers.