Controlling third harmonic generation with gammadion-shaped chiral metamaterials

Abstract

We theoretically investigated third harmonic generation (THG) from planar chiral metamaterials consisting of a square array of gammadion-shaped metal-insulator-metal multilayered nanostructures. We show that there exists strong circular dichroism (CD) for THG on the proposed chiral metamaterials. We also demonstrate that geometrically mirroring the gammadion -shaped meta-atoms can result in reversal of the THG-CD effect. Based on these CD effects in the optical nonlinear regime, we propose a design of a Fresnel zone plate (FZP) for intense focusing of the THG signals, in which adjacent zones of the FZP consist of gammadions with mirror symmetry and generate circularly polarized THG with opposite handedness. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the relative phase of the THG can be continuously changed by rotating the gammadion around its rotational axis, which could be used in the FZP to control the polarization of the output THG signals.