Broadband Light Bending with Plasmonic Nanoantennas

摘要

The phase of a light wave can be controlled by using bulk optical elements like lenses and mirrors to modify the wavefront of the propagating light These elements introduce an additional spatially nonuniform phase in the incoming wave, thereby affecting its propagation characteristics. However, the amount of phase change is limited by the optical properties of the materials, and an appreciable change typically requires a propagation length comparable to or larger than the wavelength. Although metamaterials can be fabricated that are capable of bending light in unusual ways and have enabled many fantastic applications, such as negative refraction (1), super-resolution lenses (2, 3), and cloaking (4), the capabilities of phase control and light bending are still dictated by the material parameters as governed by the conventional Snell's law.