Three-dimensional random dielectric colloid metamaterial with giant isotropic optical activity

Abstract

Motivated by the theoretical observation that isotropic chirality can exist even in completely random systems, we design a dielectric metamaterial consisting of a random colloid of meta-atoms, which exhibits unprecedentedly high isotropic optical activity. Each meta-atom is composed of a helically arranged cluster of silicon nanospheres. Such clusters can be fabricated by large-scale DNA self-assembly techniques. It is demonstrated that the use of a high concentration of the meta-atoms in the colloid provides significant suppressions of incoherent scattering losses. As a result, the proposed system shows three orders of magnitude improvement of isotropic optical activity as compared with the previous metamaterial designs. This work highlights the significant potential of completely random system, which are commonly produced in colloidal sciences, for applications as metamaterials towards novel photonic effects and devices.

arXiv comment16 pages, 6 figures, 2 tables

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