Speaker
Please indicate whether<br>this abstract may be<br>published online<br>(Yes / No)
Yes
Level for award<br> (Hons, MSc, <br> PhD, N/A)?
PhD
Would you like to <br> submit a short paper <br> for the Conference <br> Proceedings (Yes / No)?
Yes
Main supervisor (name and email)<br>and his / her institution
Professor Mark Tame / Tame@ukzn.ac.za / School of Chemistry and Physics, University of KwaZulu-Natal
Apply to be<br> considered for a student <br> award (Yes / No)?
Yes
Abstract content <br> (Max 300 words)<br><a href="http://events.saip.org.za/getFile.py/access?resId=0&materialId=0&confId=34" target="_blank">Formatting &<br>Special chars</a>
Plasmonics is a fast growing field of research that enables ultra-compact devices in on-chip optical circuitry and a new class of optical material called metamaterials. Metamaterials are made from tiny plasmonic structures placed close together at the nanoscale, where the collective behaviour of all the structures gives rise to the bulk response of the material. Metamaterials have opened up many novel ways of controlling light, and in particular, controlling the polarization of light. An important optical component in this respect is the polarizer, which transmits light of one polarization while blocking light of another polarization. In our work, we have experimentally probed and characterized a metamaterial polarizer in the quantum regime. To do this, we prepared a range of different polarization-encoded single-photon states
and sent them through the metamaterial. We then performed quantum state tomography and obtained high fidelity output states ( 96%), in full agreement with theoretical predictions for an optical polarizer. Our study shows that metamaterials
may be used for building compact optical components in on-chip quantum photonic systems.
