Geometric Metasurfaces for Ultrathin Optical Devices

Metasurface optical holography

In this work, we propose a graphene-assisted plasmonic structure with photonic spin Hall effect (PSHE) for sensing applications in near infrared with an emphasis on tunable and spin control aspects leading to enhanced performance. We comprehensively investigate PSHE in view of variable chemical doping of graphene monolayer in the structure and manipulation of the spin dependent splitting by considering single and cross polarization states. There is observed a considerable variation in spin shift due to increase in chemical potential or Pauli blocking, which fundamentally controls the light absorption by graphene. Our simulation results reveal that the amplified spin dependent shift (SDS) is 1.13 × 104 times higher than the conventional SDS at 0.436 eV of graphene chemical potential. Further, this structure is utilised for sensing application, and it is observed that graphene-assisted plasmonic based structure possesses significantly greater spin dependent sensitivity (5.53 times), figure of merit (8.56 × 105 times), and extremely finer limit of detection (by a factor of 18.10) are achieved compared to the structure without graphene. The results indicate that choosing the proposed graphene-assisted plasmonic structure with variable chemical potential and light polarization components, an extremely enhanced sensing performance can be achieved. The results are consistent with the physical rationale and are particularly important for potential biosensing applications.

Flat optical components, or metasurfaces, have transformed optical imaging, data storage, information processing, and biomedical applications by providing unprecedented control over light-matter interactions. These nano-engineered structures enable compact, multidimensional manipulation of light's amplitude, phase, polarization, and wavefront, producing scalar and vector beams with unique properties such as orbital angular momentum and knotted topologies. This flexibility has potential applications in optical communication and imaging, particularly in complex environments such as atmospheric turbulence and undersea scattering. However, designing metasurfaces for shorter wavelengths, such as visible and ultraviolet light, remains challenging due to fabrication limitations and material absorption. Here, we introduce an innovative concept called topology imprinting using judiciously designed all-dielectric nonlinear optical metasurfaces to replicate desired waveforms at fundamental and harmonic frequencies, opening promising avenues for advanced photonic applications.

Surfaces covered by ultrathin plasmonic structures--so-called metasurfaces--have recently been shown to be capable of completely controlling the phase of light, representing a new paradigm for the design of innovative optical elements such as ultrathin flat lenses, directional couplers for surface plasmon polaritons and wave plate vortex beam generation. Among the various types of metasurfaces, geometric metasurfaces, which consist of an array of plasmonic nanorods with spatially varying orientations, have shown superior phase control due to the geometric nature of their phase profile. Metasurfaces have recently been used to make computer-generated holograms, but the hologram efficiency remained too low at visible wavelengths for practical purposes. Here, we report the design and realization of a geometric metasurface hologram reaching diffraction efficiencies of 80% at 825 nm and a broad bandwidth between 630 nm and 1,050 nm. The 16-level-phase computer-generated hologram demonstrated here combines the advantages of a geometric metasurface for the superior control of the phase profile and of reflectarrays for achieving high polarization conversion efficiency. Specifically, the design of the hologram integrates a ground metal plane with a geometric metasurface that enhances the conversion efficiency between the two circular polarization states, leading to high diffraction efficiency without complicating the fabrication process. Because of these advantages, our strategy could be viable for various practical holographic applications.

Controlling both amplitude and phase of light in the subwavelength scale is a challenge for traditional optical devices. Here, we propose and numerically investigate a novel plasmonic meta-hologram, demonstrating broadband manipulation of both phase and amplitude in the subwavelength scale. In the meta-hologram, phase modulation is achieved by the detour phase distribution of unit cells, and amplitude is continuously modulated by a T-shaped nano-cavity with tunable plasmonic resonance. Compared to phase-only holograms, such a meta-hologram could reconstruct three-dimensional (3D) images with higher signal-to-noise ratio and better image quality, thus offering great potential in applications such as 3D displays, optical communications, and beam shaping.

Metasurfaces have shown their unique capabilities to manipulate the phase and/or amplitude properties of incident light at the subwavelength scale, which provides an effective approach for constructing amplitude-only, phase-only or even complexed amplitude meta-devices with high resolution. Most of meta-devices control the amplitude and/or phase of the incident light with the same polarization state; however, separately controlling of amplitude and phase of the incident light with different polarization states can provide a new degree of freedom for improving the information capacity of metasurfaces and designing multifunctional meta-devices. Herein, we combine the amplitude manipulation and geometric phase manipulation by only reconfiguring the orientation angle of the nanostructure and present a single-sized design strategy for a multiplexing meta-hologram which plays the dual roles: a continuous amplitude-only meta-device and a two-step phase-only meta-device. Two different modulation types can be readily switched merely by polarization controls. Our approach opens up the possibilities for separately and independently controlling of amplitude and phase of light to construct a multiplexing meta-hologram with a single-sized metasurface, which can contribute to the advanced research and applications in multi-folded optical anti-counterfeiting, optical information hiding and optical information encoding.

The error resulting from using the well known paraxial approximation instead of Snell's law of refraction is visualized geometrically.

Like amplitude, phase and frequency, polarization is one of the fundamental properties of light, which can be used to record, process and store information. Optical metasurfaces are ultrathin inhomogeneous media with planar nanostructures that can manipulate the optical properties of light at the subwavelength scale, which have become a current subject of intense research due to the desirable control of light propagation. The unprecedented capability of optical metasurfaces in the manipulation of the light’s polarization at subwavelength resolution has provided an unusual approach for polarization detection and arbitrary manipulation of polarization profiles. A compact metasurface platform has been demonstrated to detect polarization information of a light beam and to arbitrarily engineer a polarization profile that is very difficult or impossible to realize with conventional optical elements. This review will focus on the recent progress on ultrathin metasurface devices for polarization detection and realization of customized polarization profiles. Optical metasurfaces have provided new opportunities for polarization detection and manipulation, which can facilitate real‐world deployment of polarization‐related devices and systems in various research fields, including sensing, imaging, encryption, optical communications, quantum science, and fundamental physics.

Composite vortex beams (CVBs) have attracted considerable interest recently due to the unique optical properties and potential applications. However, these beams are mainly generated using spatial light modulators, which suffer from large volume, high cost, and limited resolution. Benefiting from the ultrathin nature and unprecedented capability in light manipulation, optical metasurfaces provide a compact platform to perform this task. A metasurface approach to creating these CVBs is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. The design is based on the superposition of multiple circularly polarized vortex beams with different topological charges, which is realized based on a geometric metasurface consisting of metallic nanorods with spatially variant orientations. The effects of the initial phases, amplitude coefficients, incident polarization state, and propagation distance on the generated CVBs, which are in good agreement with the theoretical prediction, are experimentally analyzed. This work has opened a new avenue for engineering CVBs with a minimal footprint, which has promising applications ranging from multiple optical traps to quantum science.

Information encryption and security is a prerequisite for information technology, which can be realized by an optical metasurface owing to its arbitrary manipulation over the wavelength, polarization, phase, and amplitude of light. So far information encoding can be implemented by the metasurface in one-dimensional (1D) mode (either wavelength or polarization) only with several combinations of independent channels. Herein, we design dielectric metasurfaces by multiplexing for information encoding in a two-dimensional (2D) mode of both wavelength and polarization. Sixty-three combinations made out of six independent channels by two circular polarization states (RCP and LCP) and three visible wavelengths (633, 532, and 473 nm) are experimentally demonstrated, in sharp contrast with seven combinations by three independent channels in 1D mode. This 2D mode encoding strategy enhances the encryption security dramatically and paves a novel pathway for escalating the security level of information in multichannel ...

Efficient and accurate phase gratings hold immense significance in the realization of large format heterodyne array receivers at terahertz frequencies. Metallic phase gratings have made substantial advancements in terms of operating wavelength and the number of diffraction beams. Like most other diffractive optical devices, metallic phase gratings are primarily optimized to operate at one specific wavelength. Metasurfaces compositing arrays of subwavelength nanostructures have been demonstrated with various optical functions, by freely modifying the polarization, phase, and amplitude of light. In this study, we present an approach to create a multi-wavelength phase grating compositing segments that incorporate multiple nanostructures. The resulting transmission phase grating not only exhibits uniform diffraction beams (2 × 2) but also achieves the same diffraction angles at both 1.31 and 2.7 THz. The measured total power efficiency of the diffraction beam pattern is 53.2% for 1.31 THz and 42.4% for 2.7 THz. These devices can be applied in terahertz astronomical observations and fluorescence microscopy applications, where multi-wavelength operation is necessary.

Metasurfaces are subwavelength structured thin films consisting of arrays of units that allow the control of polarization, phase, and amplitude of light over a subwavelength thickness. Recent developments in topological photonics have greatly broadened the horizon in designing metasurfaces for novel functional applications. In this review, we summarize recent progress in the research field of topological metasurfaces, first from the perspectives of passive and active in the classical regime, and then in the quantum regime. More specifically, we begin by examining the passive topological phenomena in two-dimensional photonic systems, including both time-reversal broken systems and time-reversal preserved systems. Subsequently, we discuss the cutting-edge studies of active topological metasurfaces, including nonlinear topological metasurfaces and reconfigurable topological metasurfaces. After overviewing topological metasurfaces in the classical regime, we show how they could provide a new platform for quantum information and quantum many-body physics. Finally, we conclude and describe some challenges and future directions of this fast-evolving field.

Metasurfaces composed of nano-antennas capable of shaping the resonant wavelength, polarization, phase and amplitude of light emerge as an enabling platform for ultrathin photonic devices. In this talk, we report on the recent progress of laser printed metasurfaces. Subwavelength antennas to modulate light's behavior will be studied and versatile functionalities will be discussed.

Modelling and design of human eye inspired concentric cylindrical metalens

Metasurface is emerging as an important platform to design various functional devices due to the superior capability in controlling amplitude, phase and polarization of light through its ultrathin engineering interface. A polarized-selective hologram of all-dielectric metasurface is proposed to reconstruct multiplexed holographic images on different linear polarization status. Unlike early metasurfaces composed of plasmonic resonators with great ohmic loss at visible spectrum, the designed metasurface made of silicon nanoblocks supports a broader spectral response over the bandwidth from 600 to 760 nm with high diffraction efficiency and low crosstalk between different polarization states. Both simulation and experiment have demonstrated the feasibility and adjustability of the polarization-multiplexed metasurface hologram. We believe it will have significant technological potential in the design of optical functional devices.