title: Asymmetric transmission of linearly polarized light at optical metamaterials.
abstract: We experimentally demonstrate a three-dimensional chiral optical metamaterial that exhibits an asymmetric transmission for forwardly and backwardly propagating linearly polarized light. The observation of this novel effect requires a metamaterial composed of three-dimensional chiral meta-atoms without any rotational symmetry. Our analysis is supported by a systematic investigation of the transmission matrices for arbitrarily complex, generally lossy media that allows deriving a simple criterion for asymmetric transmission in an arbitrary polarization base. Contrary to physical intuition, in general the polarization eigenstates in such three-dimensional and low-symmetry metamaterials do not obey fixed relations and the associated transmission matrices cannot be symmetrized.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Condensed Matter Theory and Solid State Optics, Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, Max-Wien-Platz 1, D-07743 Jena, Germany.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Menzel
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Helgert
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Rockstuhl
authors.forename: E-B
authors.initials: EB
authors.lastname: Kley
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tünnermann
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Pertsch
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Lederer