Finite element methods for Maxwell's equations.

The advent of metasurfaces in recent years has ushered in a revolutionary means to manipulate the behavior of light on the nanoscale. The design of such structures, to date, has relied on the expertise of an optical scientist to guide a progression of electromagnetic simulations that iteratively solve Maxwell's equations until a locally optimized solution can be attained. In this work, we identify a solution to circumvent this conventional design procedure by means of a deep learning architecture. When fed an input set of customer-defined optical spectra, the constructed generative network generates candidate patterns that match the on-demand spectra with high fidelity. This approach reveals an opportunity to expedite the discovery and design of metasurfaces for tailored optical responses in a systematic, inverse-design manner.

Generative Model for the Inverse Design of Metasurfaces.

Metasurfaces have become a rapidly growing field of research in recent years due to their exceptional abilities in light manipulation and versatility in ultrathin optical applications. They also significantly benefit from their simplified fabrication process compared to metamaterials and are promising for integration with on-chip nanophotonic devices owing to their planar profiles. The recent progress in metasurfaces is reviewed and they are classified into six categories according to their underlying physics for realizing full 2π phase manipulation. Starting from multi-resonance and gap-plasmon metasurfaces that rely on the geometric effect of plasmonic nanoantennas, Pancharatnam–Berry-phase metasurfaces, on the other hand, use identical nanoantennas with varying rotation angles. The recent development of Huygens' metasurfaces and all-dielectric metasurfaces especially benefit from highly efficient transmission applications. An overview of state-of-the-art fabrication technologies is introduced, ranging from the commonly used processes such as electron beam and focused-ion-beam lithography to some emerging techniques, such as self-assembly and nanoimprint lithography. A variety of functional materials incorporated to reconfigurable or tunable metasurfaces is also presented. Finally, a few of the current intriguing metasurface-based applications are discussed, and opinions on future prospects are provided.

https://www.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/smtd.201600064

Fundamentals and Applications of Metasurfaces

Scattering of electromagnetic waves by subwavelength objects is accompanied by the excitation of electric and magnetic Mie resonances that may modify substantially the scattering intensity and radiation pattern. Scattered fields can be decomposed into electric and magnetic multipoles, and the magnetic multipoles define magnetic response of structured materials underpinning the new field of all-dielectric resonant meta-optics. Here we review the recent developments in meta-optics and nanophotonics and demonstrate that the Mie resonances can play a crucial role offering novel ways for the enhancement of many optical effects near magnetic and electric multipolar resonances, as well as driving a variety of interference phenomena which govern recently discovered novel effects in nanophotonics. We further discuss the frontiers of all-dielectric meta-optics for flexible and advanced control of light with full phase and amplitude engineering, including nonlinear nanophotonics, anapole nanolasers, quantum optics, ...

Functional Meta-Optics and Nanophotonics Govern by Mie Resonances

During the past few years, metasurfaces have been used to demonstrate optical elements and systems with capabilities that surpass those of conventional diffractive optics. Here, we review some of these recent developments, with a focus on dielectric structures for shaping optical wavefronts. We discuss the mechanisms for achieving steep phase gradients with high efficiency, simultaneous polarization and phase control, controlling the chromatic dispersion, and controlling the angular response. Then, we review applications in imaging, conformal optics, tunable devices, and optical systems. We conclude with an outlook on future potentials and challenges that need to be overcome.

https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/nanoph-2017-0129/pdf

A review of dielectric optical metasurfaces for wavefront control

We propose all-dielectric metasurfaces that can be actively re-configured using the phase-change material Ge2Sb2Te5 (GST) alloy With selectively controlled phase transitions on the composing GST elements, metasurfaces can be tailored to exhibit varied functionalities Using phase-change GST rod as the basic building block, we have modelled metamolecules with tunable optical response when phase change occurs on select constituent GST rods Tunable gradient metasurfaces can be realized with variable supercell period consisting of different patterns of the GST rods in their amorphous and crystalline states Simulation results indicate a range of functions can be delivered, including multilevel signal modulating, near-field coupling of GST rods, and anomalous reflection angle controlling This work opens up a new space in exploring active meta-devices with broader applications that cannot be achieved in their passive counterparts with permanent properties once fabricated

/pdf/active-dielectric-metasurface-based-on-phase-change-medium-4244dcm7pu.pdf

Active dielectric metasurface based on phase-change medium

An ultrathin planar cavity metasurface is proposed based on ultrathin film interference and its practicability for light manipulation in visible region is experimentally demonstrated. Phase of reflected light is modulated by finely adjusting the thickness of amorphous silicon (a-Si) by a few nanometers on an aluminum (Al) substrate via nontrivial phase shifts at the interfaces and interference of multireflections generated from the planar cavity. A phase shift of π, the basic requirement for two-level phase metasurface systems, can be accomplished with an 8 nm thick difference. For proof of concept, gradient metasurfaces for beam deflection, Fresnel zone plate metalens for light focusing, and metaholograms for image reconstruction are presented, demonstrating polarization-independent and broadband characteristics. This novel mechanism for phase modulation with ultrathin planar cavity provides diverse routes to construct advanced flat optical devices with versatile applications.

Ultrathin Planar Cavity Metasurfaces

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/lpor.201670068

Active dielectric metasurface based on phase-change medium (Laser Photonics Rev. 10(6)/2016)

The coupling of the localized surface plasmon resonance of Au nanoparticles is utilized to deliver a visible-light stimulus to control conduction at the LaAlO3 /SrTiO3 interface. A giant photoresponse and the controllable metal-insulator transition are characterized at this heterointerface. This study paves a new route to optical control of the functionality at the heterointerfaces.

https://nanoenergy.kaust.edu.sa/Documents/Control%20of%20the%20Metal.pdf

Hui Jun Wu

Papers

Active dielectric metasurface based on phase-change medium

Ultrathin Planar Cavity Metasurfaces

Active dielectric metasurface based on phase-change medium (Laser Photonics Rev. 10(6)/2016)

Control of the Metal–Insulator Transition at Complex Oxide Heterointerfaces through Visible Light