<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mml:mi mathvariant="script">PT</mml:mi></mml:math>-symmetric chiral metamaterials: Asymmetric effects and <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mml:mi mathvariant="script">PT</mml:mi></mml:math>-phase control
Ioannis Katsantonis, Sotiris Droulias, Costas M. Soukoulis, E. N. Economou, Maria Kafesaki
Abstract
We investigate the influence of chirality on the $\mathcal{PT}$-symmetric and $\mathcal{PT}$-broken phase of $\mathcal{PT}$-symmetric chiral systems. Starting from the point that transverse magnetic (TM) and transverse electric (TE) waves have different exceptional points, we show that with circularly polarized waves (which are linear combinations of TM and TE waves) mixed $\mathcal{PT}$-symmetric phases can be realized and the extent of these phases can be highly controlled by either or both the chirality and the angle of incidence. Additionally, while the transmission of both TM and TE waves in nonchiral $\mathcal{PT}$-symmetric systems is the same for forward and backward propagation, we show that with chirality this symmetry can be broken. As a result, it is possible to realize asymmetric, i.e., side-dependent, rotation, and ellipticity in the polarization state of the transmitted wave. Our results constitute a simple example of a chiral $\mathcal{PT}$-symmetric optical system in which the various phases (full $\mathcal{PT}$, mixed, broken) and the asymmetric effects can be easily tuned by adjusting the chirality parameter and/or the angle of incidence.