Negative index optical chiral metamaterial based on asymmetric hexagonal arrays of metallic triangular nanoprisms

Nanostructures made of two layers of metallic triangular nanoprisms arranged in hexagonal lattice separated by a dielectric layer are theoretically analyzed as chiral metamaterial slabs. Transmitted and reflected electromagnetic field of normally incident circular polarized plane waves are computed using a tri-dimensional (3D) finite-difference time domain (FDTD) algorithm. Chirality and effective constitutive parameters are calculated using the modified S-parameter retrieval method for chiral metamaterials. Different hybridized plasmon modes are induced by the left and right circularly polarized light leading to a chiral behavior of the asymmetric type metamaterials. Negative refractive index due to chirality is obtained in the near infrared range of the spectrum for either left or right polarization. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.