Polarization selection with stacked hole array metamaterial

Polarization rotation or selection appears in materials with optical activity, or those with Faraday effect, or in liquid crystals. In this letter we present a structure, with an analogous response, using stacked extraordinary transmission subwavelength hole arrays modified to be nearly self-complementary. This produces a polarization selector because of the negative index of refraction for one of its linearly polarized eigenwaves. Simulation results and experiments at millimeter wavelengths confirm these features. Applications in miniaturized devices are envisioned as well as the possibility to scale to optical wavelengths. (C) 2008 American Institute of Physics.