Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2009 Mar 20;102(11):113902.
doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.102.113902. Epub 2009 Mar 19.

Metamaterials: optical activity without chirality

E Plum  1 , X-X Liu, V A Fedotov, Y Chen, D P Tsai, N I Zheludev
Affiliations

Metamaterials: optical activity without chirality

E Plum et al. Phys Rev Lett. .

Abstract

We report that the classical phenomenon of optical activity, which is traditionally associated with chirality (helicity) of organic molecules, proteins, and inorganic structures, can be observed in artificial planar media which exhibit neither 3D nor 2D chirality. We observe the effect in the microwave and optical parts of the spectrum at oblique incidence to regular arrays of nonchiral subwavelength metamolecules in the form of strong circular dichroism and birefringence indistinguishable from those of chiral three-dimensional media.

PubMed Disclaimer

Publication types