Abstract

Vanadium dioxide, a material used in many filtering and imaging applications in the near-infrared, is shown to possess the capability of modifying the polarization of visible and infrared light. Because of large refractive index changes during its insulator-to-metal phase transition, the material can switch the polarization of light over distances on the order of 100 nm. Evidences presented include direct phase measurements as well as calculations based on ellipsometric data.

© 2015 Optical Society of America