Chiral metamaterials: enhancement and control of optical activity and circular dichroism

Abstract

The control of the optical activity and ellipticity of a medium has drawn considerable attention due to the recent developments in metamaterial design techniques and a deeper understanding of the light matter interaction in composite metallic structures. Indeed, recently proposed designs of metaatoms have enabled the realisation of materials with unprecedented chiral optical properties e.g. strong optical activity, broadband optical activity, and nondispersive zero ellipticity. Combining chiral metamaterials with nonlinear materials has opened up new possibilities in the field of nonlinear chirality as well as provided the foundation for switchable chiral devices. Furthermore, chirality together with hyperbolicity can be used to realise new exciting materials such as photonic topological insulators. In this review, we will outline the fundamental principles of chiral metamaterials and report on recent progress in providing the foundations for promising applications of switchable chiral metamaterials.