Rotation of the polarization plane by double-layer planar-chiral structures. Review of the results of theoretical and experimental studies

This article provides examples that illustrate the search for different two-layer metamaterials that provide rotation of the polarization plane (“optical activity”). Selected objects show a twenty-year history of the search for a new principle of creation of polarization rotators based on planar metamaterials that were implemented in the form of thin-layered periodic structures. The manifestation of optical activity, presence or absence of satisfactory or perfect matching, the possibility of a multiband phenomena, the role of high spatial harmonics in “electromagnetics” of this effect are explained by the features of the eigen-oscillations that are excited in the gap of the multilayer structure.