Diffractive Metasurfaces Research Articles

Simultaneous sorting of arbitrary vector structured beams with spin-multiplexed diffractive metasurfaces

Simultaneous sorting of arbitrary vector structured beams with spin-multiplexed diffractive metasurfaces

Asymmetric Transmission in Diffractive Chiral Metasurfaces Consisting of Nanoantennas

We have studied the asymmetric transmission in diffractive chiral metasurfaces consisting of nanoantennas. The study was made of lattice plasmon modes on the phenomenon of asymmetric transmission in chiral two dimensional arrays of plasmonic nanoparticles. It was demonstrated that asymmetric transmission resulted from contribution of higher order diffracted waves. It was shown that the isolated nanostructures has a fourfold rotational symmetry, the diffractive metasurfaces exhibited asymmetric transmission for normal incidence light within spectral range for which lattice plasmon modes were supported. It was found that lattice plasmon modes played role in enabling symmetric transmission in diffractive chiral metasurfaces. The symmetric transmission mechanism is due to different lattice plasmon mode excitation efficiencies of left circularly polarized and right circularly polarized and right circularly polarized light. The excitation efficiencies are controlled by tailoring the nano particles in plan distribution of scattered light for circularly polarized excitation and its alignment with the inplane diffraction orders of the metasurfaces. The phenomenon for a metasurface composed of an array of a chiral nanoparticles consisting of four nanoantennas. It was shown that the Rayleigh anomaly condition where the asymmetric transmission effect was strongest and metasurfaces supported lattice plasmon modes. It was found that the difference in the inplane scattered intensity varied as a function of the inplane angle around the nanostructure, rotating the nanostructure in the plane of the metasurface. The obtained results found in good agreement with previously obtained results.

Nonlocal resonances in pedestal high-index-contrast metasurfaces based on a silicon-on-insulator platform

Subwavelength control of the electromagnetic field distribution represents one of the current challenges in photonics research. In this field, diffractive metasurfaces with spatially extended (i.e., nonlocal) resonant modes have recently gained great interest for their versatility in molding the electromagnetic field beyond the approximation of independent resonators. In this framework, we design a high-contrast nonlocal metasurface featuring modes situated in the third operating spectral window of optical communications. The optical properties of the fabricated metasurface are investigated by linear spectroscopy and numerical simulations. Our analysis allows to discern the magnetic and electric nature of the bounded modes by means of polarization-resolved reflectance measurements. Our results represent a step toward integrated nano-photonics in the telecom regime and open promising opportunities for the development of compact nonlinear optical devices.

Diffractive metasurfaces with opposite curvatures of unit cells

Thin and transparent polymer surfaces, patterned with periodic arrangement of quasi-hemispherical dimples and bulges of equivalent opposite curvatures, are studied for optical diffraction characteristics with visible light. These two-dimensional patterns are replicated from the top surface of colloidal crystals using soft imprint lithography, and possess feature sizes larger than the wavelength and pattern depths/heights significantly lesser than the wavelength. The first-order diffraction pattern, containing bright spots arranged in a hexagonal shape, is analyzed for the diffraction efficiency and angle of diffraction. Concave curvature of the unit cell gives higher diffraction intensity than the convex curvature in the experiment. Analysis with the calculated effective index variation within the thickness of the metasurface supports this observation. Pattern depth/height in the range of 40–100 nm, with an associated effective index variation of 0.09–0.17, is found to be sufficient to observe diffraction from patterned low-index polymeric surfaces in the experiment. Diffraction intensity increases monotonically with pattern depth/height in the low-index substrate. Simulation results are used to extend the studies to higher index substrates, and they possess optimum pattern depth/height that maximizes the diffraction intensity.

Coaxial dual-beam wavefront shaping using nonlocal diffractive metasurfaces in terahertz frequencies.

Metasurfaces for wavefront shaping rely on local phase modulation in subwavelength unit cells, which show limited degree of freedom in dealing with complex and multiple beam transformation. Here, we assign multiple beams into different diffraction orders coaxially located along the same direction, whose wavefronts are tailored by optimizing the diffraction coefficients in two orders and two polarization states of a supercell. By evenly splitting the energy into two orders and adjusting the zeroth-order diffraction phase, a Bessel beam and a vortex beam are simultaneously generated in the near field and far field along a coaxial direction. The effectiveness of the method is validated by the excellent agreement between the simulation and experimental characterization of the two beams.

Characterization of Chirality in Diffractive Metasurfaces by Photothermal Deflection Technique

Chirality, a lack of mirror symmetry, is present in nature at all scales; at the nanoscale, it governs the biochemical reactions of many molecules, influencing their pharmacology and toxicity. Chiral substances interact with left and right circularly polarized light differently, but this difference is very minor in natural materials. Specially engineered, nanostructured, periodic materials can enhance the chiro-optical effects if the symmetry in their interactions with circular polarization is broken. In the diffraction range of such metasurfaces, the intensity of diffracted orders depends on the chirality of the input beam. In this work, we combine a photothermal deflection experiment with a novel theoretical framework to reconstruct both the thermal and optical behavior of chiro-optical behavior in diffracted beams.

Rich Near-Infrared Chiral Behavior in Diffractive Metasurfaces

The mimicking of chiral effects at the nanoscale usually requires complex nanostructured systems fabricated by using highly sophisticated techniques. Here, we demonstrate that low-cost diffractive metasurfaces, fabricated by nanosphere lithography, can offer a remarkably rich chiral broadband response in the near-infrared range. We measure the spin-dependent response as a function of the incident angle and wavelength. The resulting extinction maps reveal switching of the resonances governed by extrinsic chirality. We further employ numerical modeling to gain an insight into the electromagnetic behavior over the unit cell. The simulation results agree with experiments, and we further investigate the possibility of tailoring chirality by matching the refractive index below and above the metasurface. Finally, we investigate chiral emission of the ensemble of electric dipoles embedded in the refractive-index-matching layer. This approach opens alternative perspectives for chiral surface-lattice resonances and chiral emission in low-cost materials.

Gain-induced scattering anomalies of diffractive metasurfaces

Abstract Photonic nanostructures with gain and loss have long been of interest in the context of diverse scattering anomalies and light-shaping phenomena. Here, we investigate the scattering coefficients of simple gain-doped diffractive metasurfaces, revealing pairs of scattering anomalies surrounded by phase vortices in frequency–momentum space. These result from an interplay between resonant gain, radiative loss, and interference effects in the vicinity of Rayleigh anomalies. We find similar vortices and singular points of giant amplification in angle-resolved reflectivity spectra of prism-coupled gain slabs. Our findings could be of interest for gain-induced wavefront shaping by all-dielectric metasurfaces, possibly employing gain coefficients as low as ∼50 cm−1.

Metasurface-enhanced transparency

We consider the problem of light transmission from a high refractive index medium into a low index environment. While total internal reflection severely limits such transmission in systems with smooth interfaces, diffractive metasurfaces may help out-couple light that enters an interface at blazing angles. We demonstrate that the profile of the structured interface can be numerically optimized to target a particular emission pattern. Our study suggests that while metasurfaces can help to out-couple light from a range of incident directions, there exists a universal limit for total transmission efficiency that depends only on the dielectric properties of the two materials and is independent of the profile and the composition of the metasurface coupler.

Strong, spectrally-tunable chirality in diffractive metasurfaces.

Metamaterials and metasurfaces provide a paradigm-changing approach for manipulating light. Their potential has been evinced by recent demonstrations of chiral responses much greater than those of natural materials. Here, we demonstrate theoretically and experimentally that the extrinsic chiral response of a metasurface can be dramatically enhanced by near-field diffraction effects. At the core of this phenomenon are lattice plasmon modes that respond selectively to the illumination’s polarization handedness. The metasurface exhibits sharp features in its circular dichroism spectra, which are tunable over a broad bandwidth by changing the illumination angle over a few degrees. Using this property, we demonstrate an ultra-thin circular-polarization sensitive spectral filter with a linewidth of ~10 nm, which can be dynamically tuned over a spectral range of 200 nm. Chiral diffractive metasurfaces, such as the one proposed here, open exciting possibilities for ultra-thin photonic devices with tunable, spin-controlled functionality.