Giant Chiral Optical Response from a Twisted-Arc Metamaterial

We demonstrate enormously strong chiral effects from a photonic metamaterial consisting of an array of dual-layer twisted-arcs with a total thickness of similar to lambda/6. Experimental results reveal a circular dichroism of similar to 0.35 in the absolute value and a maximum polarization rotation of similar to 305 degrees/lambda in a near-infrared wavelength region. A transmission of greater than 50% is achieved at the frequency where the polarization rotation peaks. Retrieved parameters from measured quantities further indicate an actual optical activity of 76 degrees per lambda and a difference of 0.42 in the indices of refraction for the two circularly polarized waves of opposite handedness.