The four polarisation method is adopted for measurement of molecular orientation in dielectric nanolayers of metal-insulator-metal (MIM) metamaterials composed of gold nanodisks on polyimide and gold films. Hyperspectral mapping at the chemical finger printing spectral range of 4–20 μ μ m was carried out for MIM patterns of 1–2.5 μ μ m period (sub-wavelength). Overlay images taken at  0 , π/ 4 , π/ 2 , 3 π/ 4   orientation angles and subsequent baseline compensation are shown to be critically important for the interpretation of chemical mapping results and reduction of spurious artefacts. Light field enhancement in the 60-nm-thick polyimide (I in MIM) was responsible for strong absorption at the characteristic polyimide bands. Strong absorbance A at narrow IR bands can be used as a thermal emitter (emittance  E = 1 − R ), where R is the reflectance and    A = 1 − R − T , where for optically thick samples the transmittance is  T = 0