Permanent recording of light helicity on optically inactive metal surfaces

We report on an unusual permanent recording of light helicity on optically achiral metals. Following a number of circularly polarized (CP) or elliptically polarized (EP) femtosecond laser pulses, well-defined periodic surface structures are found on metal surfaces. These surface structures show diff...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Optics letters 2006-12, Vol.31 (24), p.3641-3643
Main Authors: Wang, Jincheng, Guo, Chunlei
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Collective excitations (including excitons, polarons, plasmons and other charge-density excitations)
Condensed matter: electronic structure, electrical, magnetic, and optical properties
Electronic structure and electrical properties of surfaces, interfaces, thin films and low-dimensional structures
Exact sciences and technology
Fundamental areas of phenomenology (including applications)
Holographic recording materials
optical storage media
Optical materials
Optics
Physics
Polarization
Surface and interface electron states
Wave optics
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Summary:We report on an unusual permanent recording of light helicity on optically achiral metals. Following a number of circularly polarized (CP) or elliptically polarized (EP) femtosecond laser pulses, well-defined periodic surface structures are found on metal surfaces. These surface structures show different orientation when formed by left CP/EP compared with right CP/EP light. The formation of these structures is attributed to the interference between the incident light and the excited surface plasmons. To our knowledge, this is the only phenomenon that can permanently record light helicity with an optically inactive material.
ISSN:0146-9592
1539-4794
DOI:10.1364/OL.31.003641