Controlling the polarization of light with bilayer subwavelength metallic apertures

In this paper, we tailor the evanescent field coupling between two metal layers with subwavelength slit arrays and created a half-wave plate that imparts a half-wave phase delay to one component of linear polarization. The polarization of linearly polarized light at 1.55 μm wavelength can be rotated by up to 90 degrees, with polarization extinction ratio exceeding 22 dB. One advantage of this device over conventional polarization rotators is that the wavelength of operation can be chosen by fabricating subwavelength slit arrays with different parameters. Moreover, future devices can be designed to be mechanically tunable by suspending one of the metal plates. Nanomechanical motion between the two metal layers changes the evanescent field coupling between them, allowing real time control of the polarization of the transmitted light.