Twisted Two-Dimensional Material Stacks for Polarization Optics

The ability to control the light polarization state is critically important for diverse applications in information processing, telecommunications, and spectroscopy. Here, we propose that a stack of anisotropic van der Waals materials can facilitate the building of optical elements with Jones matrices of unitary, Hermitian, non-normal, singular, degenerate, and defective classes. We show that the twisted stack with electrostatic control can function as arbitrary-birefringent wave-plate or arbitrary polarizer with tunable degree of non-normality, which in turn give access to plethora of polarization transformers including rotators, pseudorotators, symmetric and ambidextrous polarizers. Moreover, we discuss an electrostatic-reconfigurable stack which can be tuned to operate as four different polarizers and be used for Stokes polarimetry.

Automated summary

The ability to control light polarization state is crucial for various applications. This study proposes the use of a stack of anisotropic van der Waals materials to create optical elements with different characteristics. The twisted stack with electrostatic control can function as arbitrary-birefringent wave-plate or polarizer, enabling the access to a wide range of polarization transformers. An electrostatic-reconfigurable stack is also discussed, which can operate as four different polarizers for Stokes polarimetry.