Spinoptics provides a route to control light, whereby the photon helicity (spin angular momentum) degeneracy is removed due to a geometric gradient onto a metasurface. The alliance of spinoptics and metamaterials offers the dispersion engineering of a structured matter in a polarization helicity dependent manner. We show that polarization-controlled optical modes of metamaterials arise where the spatial inversion symmetry is violated [1]. The emerged spin-split dispersion of spontaneous emission originates from the spin-orbit interaction of light, generating a selection rule based on symmetry restrictions in a spinoptical metamaterial. The inversion asymmetric metasurface is obtained via anisotropic optical antenna patterns. This type of metamaterial provides a route for spin-controlled nanophotonic applications based on the design of the metasurface symmetry properties.

References

[1]  

N. Shitrit, I. Yulevich, E. Maguid, D. Ozeri, D. Veksler, V. Kleiner, and E. Hasman, Science 340, 724 (2013).