Broadband plasmonic half-wave plates in reflection

We demonstrate, both numerically and experimentally, that metal-insulator-metal configurations in which the top metal layer consists of a periodic arrangement of nanobricks, thus supporting gap-surface plasmon resonances, can be designed to function as reflective broadband half-wave plates. Using gold as the metal, the constructed wave plates in the near-infrared regime show scalability, bandwidth of similar to 20% of the design wavelength, and theoretical reflectivity above 85%, while a reflectivity of similar to 50% is experimentally measured. (C) 2013 Optical Society of America