Spinoptical metamaterials: spin-controlled photonics based on symmetry violation

Spinoptics provides a route to control light, whereby the photon helicity (spin angular momentum) degeneracy is removed due to a geometric gradient onto a metasurface. The alliance of spinoptics and metamaterials offers the dispersion engineering of a structured matter in a polarization helicity dependent manner. We show that polarization-controlled optical modes of metamaterials arise where the spatial inversion symmetry is violated. The emerged spin-split dispersion of spontaneous emission originates from the spin-orbit interaction of light, generating a selection rule based on symmetry restrictions in a spinoptical metamaterial. The inversion asymmetric metasurface is obtained via anisotropic optical antenna patterns. This type of metamaterial provides a route for spin-controlled nanophotonic applications based on the design of the metasurface symmetry properties.

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