Abstract

Recently, we demonstrated that ensembles of gallium phosphide (GaP) nanowires show giant birefringence for an optical wavelength of 632.8 nm depending on their length and filling fraction [1]. High density nanowire ensembles are the strongest birefringent material to date. This novel metamaterial opens new possibilities in several micro- and nanophotonics applications like optical sensing. Here, we present the first broadband birefringence measurements on samples of GaP nanowires. The samples are grown vertically in the metal-organic vapor phase epitaxy (MOVPE) using the vapor-liquid- solid (VLS) growth mode. Fig. 1 shows a SEM image of nanowires with a length of 1.5 μm and a high filling fraction. The

© 2007 IEEE