Linear optical elements based on cooperative subwavelength emitter arrays

Abstract

We describe applications of two-dimensional subwavelength quantum emitter arrays as efficient optical elements in the linear regime. For normally incident light, the cooperative optical response, stemming from emitter-emitter dipole exchanges, allows the control of the array’s transmission, its resonance frequency, and bandwidth. Operations on fully polarized incident light, such as generic linear and circular polarizers as well as phase retarders can be engineered and described in terms of Jones matrices. Our analytical approach and accompanying numerical simulations identify optimal regimes for such operations and reveal the importance of adjusting the array geometry and of the careful tuning of the external magnetic fields amplitude and direction.