Magnetic-Electric Metamirror and Polarizing Beam Splitter Composed of Anisotropic Nanoparticles

The emergence of new materials and fabrication techniques provides progress in the development of advanced photonic and communication devices. Transition metal dichalcogenides (e.g., molybdenum disulfide, MoS2) are novel materials possessing unique physical and chemical properties promising for optical applications. In this paper, a metasurface composed of particles made of bulk MoS2 is proposed and numerically studied considering its operation in the near-infrared range. In the bulk configuration, MoS2 has a layered structure being a uniaxial anisotropic crystal demonstrating an optical birefringence property. It is supposed that the large-scale and uniform MoS2 layers are synthesized in a vertical-standing morphology, and then they are patterned into a regular 2D array of disks to form a metasurface. The natural anisotropy of MoS2 is utilized to realize the splitting of electric and magnetic dipole modes of the disks while optimizing their geometric parameters to bring the desired modes into overlap. At the corresponding resonant frequencies, the metasurface behaves as either an electric or a magnetic mirror, depending on the polarization of incident light. Based on the extraordinary reflection characteristics of the proposed metasurface, it can be considered an alternative to traditional mirrors and optical splitters when designing compact and highly efficient metadevices, which provide polarization and phase manipulation of electromagnetic waves on a subwavelength scale.

Automated summary

The emergence of new materials and fabrication techniques has contributed to the development of advanced photonic and communication devices. This paper proposes and numerically studies a metasurface made of bulk MoS2, a novel material with unique properties suitable for optical applications. By utilizing the natural anisotropy of MoS2, the metasurface is able to split electric and magnetic dipole modes and bring them into overlap by optimizing geometric parameters. At resonant frequencies, the metasurface acts as either an electric or a magnetic mirror depending on the polarization of incident light. It can be considered an alternative to traditional mirrors and optical splitters for designing compact and highly efficient metadevices that manipulate electromagnetic waves on a subwavelength scale.