Modelling and nanofabrication of chiral dielectric metasurfaces

Abstract

Polarization control through all-dielectric metasurfaces holds great potential in different fields, such as telecommunications, biochemistry and holography. Asymmetric chiral metasurfaces supporting quasi-bound states in the continuum may prove very useful for controlling and manipulating the polarization state of light. A crucial quantity for characterizing the optical chirality is the circular dichroism (CD). In this work we analyse how the CD and quality factor of the optical mode can be strongly influenced by a nanofabrication error. Modelling the nanofabrication uncertainties on the gaps of the chiral metasurface, the imperfections of the etchings process or the modification of the asymmetry factor, we found that the proper engineering of the gap between the nanostructures of the unit cell is the most important parameter to achieve a high-quality factor and enhanced optical dichroism. An optimization of the nanofabrication processes, such as dose factor, dwell time and plasma etching demonstrates that, for a writing field of 100 μm2, it is possible to obtain morphologically precise chiral metasurfaces, with fabrication uncertainties lower than those that would limit Q factor and chirality property.

Keywords

• Chiral metasurface
• Circular dichroism
• Dielectric metasurface
• Quality factor
• EBL
• Third-harmonic generation