Polarizzatori su nanoscala per applicazioni di manipolazione e rilevamento della luce

Polarized light plays a significant role in various modern applications such as sunglasses, display technologies, navigation, and optical communications, which involve multiple disciplines, such as physics, chemistry, geology, and material science. Polarizers are among the most critical components for the control of polarization states, which can make a specific polarization state pass through while blocking other polarization states. In this work, two different polarizers have been proposed and optimized for light manipulation. One is a wire gird reflecting polarizer. It works at HI Ly-α 121.6 nm and aims to measure the magnetic field vector of Solar corona plasma. The optimal solution exhibits a polarization degree greater than 99.9 % and TE-reflectance greater than 0.2. The other is a TM-pass waveguide polarizer, working at 1.55 µm and aims to realize high-dense PLCs for optical fiber communications. The optimal solution realizes an extinction ratio as high as 60.7 dB and an insertion loss of 2.23 dB at a length of only 5 µm. To our knowledge, this extinction ratio is one of the highest values ever reported. In addition, all those optimal structures show a good tolerance in terms of free parameters, thus providing a large manufacturing possibility. The fabrication plan for these optimal structures has been worked out through the collaboration between the Laboratory of Microfabrication, Institute of Physics, CAS, and CNR-IFN, Padova. According to the existing equipment in these facilities, the specific manufacturing technical routes for each optimal structure are given, the relevant testing platforms and their working principle are presented.