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Tuning the polarization state of light via time retardation with a microstructured surface

2013; American Physical Society; Volume: 88; Issue: 16 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1103/physrevb.88.161104

1550-235X

Shang‐Chi Jiang, Xiang Xiong, Paulo Sarriugarte, Shengwei Jiang, Xiaobo Yin, Yuan Wang, Ru‐Wen Peng, Di Wu, Rainer Hillenbrand, Xiang Zhang, Mu Wang,

Plasmonic and Surface Plasmon Research

We report here an approach to tune efficiently the phase difference of light in two orthogonal directions, $\ensuremath{\Delta}\ensuremath{\varphi}$, by controlling the time retardation with a microstructured surface made of L-shaped metallic patterns. The time retardation through the judicious microstructures can be adjusted on the femtosecond level, and $\ensuremath{\Delta}\ensuremath{\varphi}$ can be linearly tuned accurately from $\ensuremath{-}{180}^{\ensuremath{\circ}}$ to 180${}^{\ensuremath{\circ}}$ by changing the frequency of incident light. Particularly, the amplitudes in two orthogonal directions are identical, so that the polarization state always locates on a meridian of a Poincar\'e sphere. Near-field measurement confirms that there is indeed time retardation between the oscillations in the orthogonal directions of the L-shaped patterns. This approach offers an alternative way to manipulate the polarization state of light.