Chirality-delinked manipulations on surface waves and propagating waves by an ultra-compact metasurface

Abstract

Although many schemes have been proposed to manipulate propagating waves (PWs) and surface waves (SWs), usually each operation needs a different meta-device, being highly unfavorable for optics integrations. Here, we propose a scheme to design a single meta-device that can efficiently generate SWs and/or PWs with pre-designed wavefronts, illuminated by circularly polarized wave with different chirality. As a proof of concept, we design and fabricate a microwave meta-device and experimentally demonstrate that it can efficiently convert a CP wave with left or right handedness into a SW beam focused to a point or a SW beam travelling to a pre-designed direction. We further develop our scheme to design a meta-device and numerically demonstrate that it can either excite a SW beam or generate a far-field PW with pre-designed wavefront. Our work may stimulate simultaneous controls on far- and near-field EM environments based on a single ultra-compact platform.