There is, I think, something ethereal about i —the square root of minus one. I remember first hearing about it at school. It seemed an odd beast at that time—an intruder hovering on the edge of reality.

Usually familiarity dulls this sense of the bizarre, but in the case of i it was the reverse: over the years the sense of its surreal nature intensified. It seemed that it was impossible to write mathematics that described the real world in …

I and i

A key goal of metalens research is to achieve wavefront shaping of light using optical elements with thicknesses on the order of the wavelength. Such miniaturization is expected to lead to compact, nanoscale optical devices with applications in cameras, lighting, displays and wearable optics. However, retaining functionality while reducing device size has proven particularly challenging. For example, so far there has been no demonstration of broadband achromatic metalenses covering the entire visible spectrum. Here, we show that by judicious design of nanofins on a surface, it is possible to simultaneously control the phase, group delay and group delay dispersion of light, thereby achieving a transmissive achromatic metalens with large bandwidth. We demonstrate diffraction-limited achromatic focusing and achromatic imaging from 470 to 670 nm. Our metalens comprises only a single layer of nanostructures whose thickness is on the order of the wavelength, and does not involve spatial multiplexing or cascading. While this initial design (numerical aperture of 0.2) has an efficiency of about 20% at 500 nm, we discuss ways in which our approach may be further optimized to meet the demand of future applications. Controlling the geometry of each dielectric element of a nanostructured surface enables frequency-dependent group delay and group delay dispersion engineering, and the fabrication of an achromatic metalens for imaging in the visible in transmission.

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A broadband achromatic metalens for focusing and imaging in the visible.

Among various flat optical devices, metasurfaces have presented their great ability in efficient manipulation of light fields and have been proposed for variety of devices with specific functionalities. However, due to the high phase dispersion of their building blocks, metasurfaces significantly suffer from large chromatic aberration. Here we propose a design principle to realize achromatic metasurface devices which successfully eliminate the chromatic aberration over a continuous wavelength region from 1200 to 1680 nm for circularly-polarized incidences in a reflection scheme. For this proof-of-concept, we demonstrate broadband achromatic metalenses (with the efficiency on the order of ∼12%) which are capable of focusing light with arbitrary wavelength at the same focal plane. A broadband achromatic gradient metasurface is also implemented, which is able to deflect wide-band light by the same angle. Through this approach, various flat achromatic devices that were previously impossible can be realized, which will allow innovation in full-color detection and imaging. Metasurfaces suffer from large chromatic aberration due to the high phase dispersion of their building blocks, limiting their applications. Here, Wang et al. design achromatic metasurface devices which eliminate the chromatic aberration over a continuous region from 1200 to 1680 nm in a reflection schleme.

Broadband achromatic optical metasurface devices

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

As nanofabrication technology progresses, the emerging metasurface has offered unique opportunities for holography, such as an increased data capacity and the realization of polarization-sensitive functionality. Multicolor three-dimensional (3D) meta-hologram imaging is one of the most pursued applications for meta-hologram not yet realized. How to reduce the cross-talk among different colors in broad bandwidth designs is a critical question. On the basis of the off-axis illumination method, we develop a novel way to overcome the cross-talk limitation and achieve multicolor meta-holography with a single type of plasmonic pixel. With this method, the usable data capacity can also be improved. It not only leads to a remarkable image quality, with a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) five times better than that of the previous meta-hologram designs, but also paves the way to new meta-hologram devices, which mark an advance in the field of meta-holography. For example, a seven-color meta-hologram can be fabricated with a color gamut 1.39 times larger than that of the red, green, and blue (RGB) design. For the first time, a full-color meta-holographic image in the 3D space is also experimentally demonstrated. Our approach to expanding the information capacity of the meta-hologram is unique, which extends broad applications in data storage, security, and authentication.

Multicolor 3D meta-holography by broadband plasmonic modulation

Traditional technologies to generate and manipulate the orbital angular momentum (OAM) suffer from bulky size and do not lend themselves to nanophotonic systems. An ultrathin metasurface based on abrupt phase shift has recently been proposed as an alternative method. Nevertheless, gradient phase was generally approximated by multiple meta-atom/molecules with discrete levels of abrupt phase shift, which not only increases the design and fabrication complexity but also causes difficulties in obtaining simultaneous electrical and optical functionality. Furthermore, a discontinuous phase profile would introduce phase noise to the scattering fields and deteriorate the purity of the OAM beams. Here, we propose a wavefront engineering mechanism by virtue of the spin–orbit interaction in continuously shaped plasmonic metasurfaces, which offers a new approach to generate OAM modes of high purity. Equally important, a method producing arbitrary OAM topological charge, integral and fractional, is demonstrated by mer...

Merging Geometric Phase and Plasmon Retardation Phase in Continuously Shaped Metasurfaces for Arbitrary Orbital Angular Momentum Generation

Orbital angular momentum (OAM) has recently gained much interest in high-speed optical communication due to its spatial orthogonality. However, complex spatial phase distributions of OAM make the components difficult for nano-photonic integration. In this work, a method to multiplex and demultiplex multiple OAMs, wavelengths, and polarizations channels by a highly integrated off-axis technique on a metasurface is presented. As a multiplexer, beams without OAM can be transferred into coaxial beams carrying different OAM features by different incident angles; as a demultiplexer, coaxial beams carrying multi-OAMs can be divided into different directions with fundamental modes. Furthermore, the component based on dipole optical antenna metasurface can be used not only as an OAM multiplexer/demultiplexer but also as a multiplexer/demultiplexer to achieve wavelength division multiplexing and polarization-division multiplexing, as both these applications are based on the conservations of momentum and angular momentum. For practical applications, phase-only hologram is analyzed to demonstrate multiple functions of this method.

Orbital Angular Momentum Multiplexing and Demultiplexing by a Single Metasurface

With inherent orthogonality, both the spin angular momentum (SAM) and orbital angular momentum (OAM) of photons have been utilized to expand the dimensions of quantum information, optical communications, and information processing, wherein simultaneous detection of SAMs and OAMs with a single element and a single-shot measurement is highly anticipated. Here, a single azimuthal-quadratic phase metasurface-based photonic momentum transformation (PMT) is illustrated and utilized for vortex recognition. Since different vortices are converted into focusing patterns with distinct azimuthal coordinates on a transverse plane through PMT, OAMs within a large mode space can be determined through a single-shot measurement. Moreover, spin-controlled dual-functional PMTs are proposed for simultaneous SAM and OAM sorting, which is implemented by a single spin-decoupled metasurface that merges both the geometric phase and dynamic phase. Interestingly, our proposed method can detect vectorial vortices with both phase and polarization singularities, as well as superimposed vortices with a certain interval step. Experimental results obtained at several wavelengths in the visible band exhibit good agreement with the numerical modeling. With the merits of ultracompact device size, simple optical configuration, and prominent vortex recognition ability, our approach may underpin the development of integrated and high-dimensional optical and quantum systems.

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Spin-decoupled metasurface for simultaneous detection of spin and orbital angular momenta via momentum transformation.

The independent control of electromagnetic waves with different oscillating frequencies is critical in the modern electromagnetic techniques, such as wireless communications and multispectral imaging. To obtain complete control of different light waves with optical materials, the chromatic dispersion should be carefully controlled, which is however extremely difficult. In this paper, we propose a method to control the behaviors of different light waves through a metasurface which is able to generate achromatic geometric phase. Using this approach, a doughnut-shaped and a solid light spot were achieved at the same focal plane using two light sources with different wavelengths as used in the stimulation emission depletion (STED) microscope system. In order to reveal the full capacity of such method, tight focusing at multiple wavelengths is also represented, where the focal spots of different wavelengths are located at the same position. The results provided here may open a new door to the design of subminiature optical components and integrated optical system operating at multiple wavelengths.

Jinjin Jin

Papers

Merging Geometric Phase and Plasmon Retardation Phase in Continuously Shaped Metasurfaces for Arbitrary Orbital Angular Momentum Generation

Orbital Angular Momentum Multiplexing and Demultiplexing by a Single Metasurface

Spin-decoupled metasurface for simultaneous detection of spin and orbital angular momenta via momentum transformation.

Multispectral optical metasurfaces enabled by achromatic phase transition.

Multi-Channel Vortex Beam Generation by Simultaneous Amplitude and Phase Modulation with Two-Dimensional Metamaterial