{
  "abstract": "Metamaterials tailor light's degrees of freedom through static designs, but sub-picosecond, all-optical control without sacrificing signal throughput remains challenging. Here, a metasurface is presented whose unit cell contains two independent, orthogonal and spectrally detuned Au nanorod resonators. A femtosecond pump polarized along either nanorod selectively heats its electrons, modulating one polarization channel while the other serves as an essentially unperturbed phase reference, turning a static wave retarder into an ultrafast, all-optically reconfigurable one. The transient response is computed by coupling a Three-Temperature Model, benchmarked against published experiments, with Finite-Difference Time-Domain simulations. Hot electrons damp and red-shift the pumped resonance, modulating the amplitude ratio and phase retardation of the two channels. In transmission at normal incidence and sub-mJ cm$^{-2}$ fluence, a 45$^\\circ$ probe undergoes changes of $\\approx$10$^\\circ$ in ellipticity and $\\approx$15$^\\circ$ in optical rotation within $\\approx$100 fs (relaxation time $\\approx$4 ps), while its transmittance ($\\approx$0.4) changes by at most $\\approx$0.05. A second, delayed pump along the other nanorod raises these changes to $\\approx$15$^\\circ$ and $\\approx$22$^\\circ$ and, for a suitably polarized probe, cancels the intensity change of the first within $\\approx$60 fs while the polarization stays changed. Selective all-optical control of independent resonators offers a practical route to transmissive ultrafast polarization control.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [],
  "article_type": null,
  "arxiv": "2607.02733",
  "author_total": 3,
  "authors": [
    {
      "name": "Nikolaos Matthaiakakis"
    },
    {
      "name": "Lea Teste"
    },
    {
      "name": "George Kakarantzas"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/8j9rbs1ydgga3.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.48550/arxiv.2607.02733",
  "fulltext_url": null,
  "id": "8j9rbs1ydgga3",
  "issns": [],
  "landing_url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2607.02733",
  "language": null,
  "licence": "LicenseRef-arXiv-nonexclusive-1.0",
  "licence_label": "arXiv licence",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "http://arxiv.org/licenses/nonexclusive-distrib/1.0/",
  "metadata_licence": "CC0-1.0",
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "arxiv",
      "physics.optics"
    ],
    [
      "openalex",
      "2504|Metamaterials and Metasurfaces Applications"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7167585541",
  "pdf_url": "https://arxiv.org/pdf/2607.02733",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-10-28",
  "publisher": null,
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/8j9rbs1ydgga3.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:36:22Z",
      "native_id": "2607.02733",
      "source": "arxiv",
      "url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2607.02733"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "physics",
      "origin": "arxiv:physics.optics",
      "subfield": "optics-photonics"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Ultrafast All-Optical Polarization Control in a Plasmonic Metasurface by Selective Hot-Electron Heating of Orthogonal Gold Nanorods",
  "title_text": "Ultrafast All-Optical Polarization Control in a Plasmonic Metasurface by Selective Hot-Electron Heating of Orthogonal Gold Nanorods",
  "type": "preprint",
  "updated_at": "2026-11-01T12:20:44Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/8j9rbs1ydgga3",
  "venue": "arXiv",
  "versions": []
}