Fabrication and characterization of a large-area metal nano-grid wave plate

Abstract

We introduce a fast and cost-effective technique to fabricate large-area periodically nanopatterned metal samples and apply this technique to create reflective nano-grid wave plates for optical wavelengths. The technique makes use of azo-polymer-based interference lithography and a special imprint method that enables creating large-area metal nanopatterns with high vertical walls. We fabricate and experimentally test a gold nano-grid wave plate that operates as reflective λ/4 -plate for λ = 604 nm and λ/2 -plate for λ = 997 nm.