Highly asymmetric transmission of linearly polarized waves realized with a multilayered structure including chiral metamaterials

We numerically and experimentally demonstrate highly asymmetric transmission of linearly polarized waves with a multilayered metallic structure. The whole structure has a subwavelength thickness and consists of a thin slab of chiral metamaterial sandwiched between two 90° twisted linear polarizers. The chiral metamaterial is made of two sets of twisting cross wires that can rotate the polarization by 90° at resonance, and the two linear polarizers are simple metallic grating polarizers. The operation principle of the whole structure can be well interpreted by using the Jones matrix method. Our experimental results also verify that chiral metamaterials can be safely integrated into complex structures and treated as an effective medium as long as their resonant modes are not affected by the environment. © 2014 IOP Publishing Ltd