A Knotted Metamolecule with Axisymmetric Strong Optical Activity

Wending Mai, Lei Kang, Ronald Jenkins, Danny Zhu, Chunxu Mao, Pingjuan L. Werner, Yifan Chen, Douglas H. Werner

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

5 Scopus citations

Abstract

Optical activity is the ability of chiral materials to rotate linearly polarized electromagnetic waves. A knotted chiral metamolecule is introduced here that exhibits strong optical activity corresponding to a 90° polarization rotation of the incident waves. More importantly, the torus knot structure is intrinsically chiral and multifold axisymmetric. Consequently, the observed polarization rotation behavior is found to be independent of how the incident wave is polarized. The metamolecule is fabricated through selective laser melting and experimentally validated in the microwave spectrum. This work represents the first ever metamolecule to be reported that is intrinsically axisymmetric and capable of simultaneously exhibiting strong optical activity.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number2000948
JournalAdvanced Optical Materials
Volume8
Issue number23
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 3 2020

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials
  • Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics

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