Controlling the polarization and wavefront of light is essential for compact photonic systems in modern science and technology. This may be achieved by metasurfaces, a new platform that has radically changed the way people engineer wave-matter interactions. However, it still remains very challenging to generate versatile beams with arbitrary and independent wavefronts in each polarization channel by a single ultrathin metasurface. By modulating both the geometric and propagation phases of the metasurface, here we propose a method that can generate an assembly of circularly- and linearly-polarized beams with simultaneously the capability of independent encoding desired wavefront to each individual polarization channel, which we believe will greatly enhance the information capacities of the meta-devices. Two proof-of-concept designs are experimentally demonstrated in microwave region. Upon the excitation of an arbitrary linear polarization, the first device can generate distinct vortex beams with desired two linear and two circular orthogonal polarizations, whereas the second one can generate multi-foci containing components of full polarizations. This approach to generate versatile polarizations with tailored wavefront may pave a way to achieve advanced, flat and multifunctional meta-device for integrated systems.
While flat metasurfaces are intensively studied, theoretical modelling of conformal metasurfaces appears to be exceptionally challenging where it demands accurate analysis of the metasurface geometry. Here, it is shown how numerical calculation of Green's function can be employed to design conformal sparse metasurfaces of arbitrary geometries within the same framework and without any accommodation. Furthermore, following the presented approach, it can be sufficient to realize only electric response to perform an efficient control of wavefronts that might simplify the design and fabrication of …
We propose a nonlinear acoustic metasurface concept by exploiting the nonlinearity of the locally resonant unit cells formed by curved beams. The analytical model is established to explore the nonlinear phenomenon, specifically the second-harmonic generation (SHG) of the acoustic waveguide and validated through numerical and experimental studies. Novel nonlinear acoustic metasurfaces are developed to demultiplex different frequency components and achieve anomalous wavefront control of SHG in the transmitted region. To this end, we demonstrate wave steering, wave focusing, and self-bending prop…
In this work, we develop the gradient metasurface is constructed of a locally anisotropic resonant structure, comprising a steel cylinder with an elliptical rubber coating embedded in epoxy. The deflective angles of rubber ellipses in the locally anisotropic resonant unit provide a method of controlling the reflected phase. Phase shifts of the reflected wave can cover the 2pi range. With an appropriate design of the phase profiles along the acoustic metasurface, we can achieve anomalous reflection and Bessel beam. The locally anisotropic resonant units have significant potential for engineerin…
This study presents a tunable phase-modulated metasurface composed of periodically distributed piezoelectric patches with resonant-type shunt circuits. The fully coupled electromechanical model is established to study the transmission characteristics of the metasurface unit and validated through numerical and experimental studies. Based on the analysis of the metasurface unit, we first explore the performance of electroelastic metasurface with single-resonant shunts and then extend its capability with multi-resonant shunts. By only tuning the electric loads in the shunt circuits, we utilize th…
We present the study of bound surface modes sustained at the termination of truncated bulk dielectric photonic crystals and isolated metasurfaces of dielectric meta-atoms. We discuss the origins of bound modes in the two systems and their relation. For both systems, we theoretically study and experimentally demonstrate wavefront manipulation, in particular directional emission, frequency splitting and beam collimation achieved by coupling of the bound states to radiation modes through leaky wave radiation mechanism using properly designed scattering gratings.
In recent years, metasurfaces have shown extremely powerful abilities for manipulation of electromagnetic waves. However, the local electromagnetic response of conventional metasurfaces yields to an intrinsic performance limitation in terms of efficiency, minimizing their implementation in real-life applications. The efficiency of reconfigurable metasurfaces further decreases because of the high density of meta-atoms, reaching 74 meta-atoms per $λ^2$ area, incorporating lossy tunable elements. To address these problems, we implement strong electromagnetic non-local features in a \textit{sparse…
Metasurfaces with planar profile and wave front shaping capabilities would be ideally suitable to improve the performance of acoustic wave-based applications. It is significant that the general Snell's law provides a new approach to engineer the phase profile of reflected acoustic wave. Here, we present a new type of acoustic metasurface based on three-component composites which contain a steel ball coated with a thin elliptical layer of silicone rubber and embedded in epoxy. The acoustic metasurface with changeable radii of steel balls can realize the anomalous reflections, a planar acoustic …
Modulation of metasurfaces in time gives rise to several exotic space-time scattering phenomena by violating the reciprocity and generation of higher-order frequency harmonics. We introduce a new design paradigm for time-modulated metasurfaces, offering electrically tunable engineering of the generated frequency harmonics and their emerging wavefronts by controlling the phase delay in modulation. It is demonstrated that the light acquires a dispersionless phase shift regardless of incident angle and polarization, upon undergoing frequency conversion in a time-modulated metasurface which is lin…
Graded metasurfaces exploit the local momentum imparted by an impedance gradient to transform the impinging wavefront. This approach suffers from fundamental limits on the overall conversion efficiency and it is challenged by fabrication limitations on the maximum spatial resolution. Here, we introduce the concept of meta-gratings, which enables arbitrary wavefront engineering with unitary efficiency and significantly lower demands on the fabrication precision. We employ this concept to design reflective metasurfaces for wavefront steering without limitations on efficiency. A similar approach …
Previously reported acoustic metasurfaces that consist of fixed channels, are untunable to meet the broadband requirement and alterable functionalities. To overcome this limitation, we propose screw-and-nut mechanism of tunability and design a type of continuously tunable acoustic metasurface with unit components of helical cylinders which are screwed into a plate. The spiral channel length can be tuned continuously by the screwed depth; and then a metasurface with continuously tunable acoustic phase at independent pixels is attained. Different distributions of the unit components can shape an…
In this paper, for the first time, a new generation of ultrafast reprogrammable multi-mission bias encoded metasurface is proposed for dynamic THz wavefront engineering by employing VO2 reversible and fast monoclinic to tetragonal phase transition. The multi-functionality of our designed VO2 based coding metasurface (VBCM) was guaranteed by elaborately designed meta-atom comprising three-patterned VO2 thin films whose operational statuses can be dynamically tuned among four states of "00"- "11" by merely changing the biasing voltage controlled by an external FPGA platform. Capitalizing on such…
Actively tunable and reconfigurable wavefront shaping by optical metasurfaces poses a significant technical challenge often requiring unconventional materials engineering and nanofabrication. Most wavefront-shaping metasurfaces can be considered 'local' in that their operation depends on the responses of individual meta-units. In contrast, 'nonlocal' metasurfaces function based on the modes supported by many adjacent meta-units, resulting in sharp spectral features but typically no spatial control of the outgoing wavefront. Recently, nonlocal metasurfaces based on quasi-bound states in the con…
Dielectric metasurfaces provide a unique platform for efficient harmonic generation and optical wavefront manipulation at the nanoscale. Tailoring phase and amplitude of a nonlinearly generated wave with a high emission efficiency using resonance-based metasurfaces is a challenging task which often requires state-of-the-art numerical methods. Here, we propose a simple yet effective approach combining a sampling method with a Monte Carlo approach to design the third-harmonic wavefront generated by all-dielectric metasurfaces composed of elliptical silicon nanodisks. Using this approach, we demo…
Using metasurfaces to control the wave propagation at will has been very successful over the broad electromagnetic spectrum in recent years. By encoding specially designed abrupt changes of electromagnetic parameters into metasurfaces, such as phase and amplitude, nearly arbitrary control over the output wavefronts could be realized. Constituted by a single- or fewlayer of planar structures, metasurfaces are straightforward in design and fabrication, thus promising many realistic applications. Moreover, such control concept can be further extended to the surface wave regime. In this review, we…
The strong interaction of light with micro- and nanostructures plays a critical role in optical sensing, nonlinear optics, active optical devices, and quantum optics. However, for wavefront shaping, the required local control over light at a subwavelength scale limits this interaction, typically leading to low-quality-factor optical devices. Here, we demonstrate an avenue towards high-quality-factor wavefront shaping in two spatial dimensions based on all-dielectric Huygens metasurfaces by leveraging higher-order Mie resonances. We design and experimentally realize transmissive band stop filte…
All-dielectric optical metasurfaces can locally control the amplitude and phase of light at the nanoscale, enabling arbitrary wavefront shaping. However, lack of post-fabrication tunability has limited the true potential of metasurfaces for many applications. Here, we utilize a thin liquid crystal (LC) layer as a tunable medium surrounding the metasurface to achieve a phase-only spatial light modulator (SLM) with high reflection in the visible frequency, exhibiting an active and continuous resonance tuning with associated 2pi phase control and uncoupled amplitude. Dynamic wavefront shaping is …
Dynamically reconfigurable metasurfaces promise compact and lightweight spatial light modulation for many applications, including LiDAR, AR/VR, and LiFi systems. Here, we design and computationally investigate high quality factor silicon-on-lithium niobate metasurfaces with electrically-driven, independent control of its constituent nanobars for full phase tunability with high tuning efficiency. Free-space light couples to guided modes within each nanobar via periodic perturbations, generating quality factors exceeding 30,000, while maintaining bar spacing <$λ$/1.5. We achieve nearly 2$π$ phas…
Towards optimal spatiotemporal wavefront shaping for the cocktail party problem with inverse design of an acoustic reconfigurable metasurface in disordered media
Metasurfaces (MSs) have been utilized to manipulate different properties of electromagnetic waves. By combining local control over the wave amplitude, phase, and polarization into a single tunable structure, a multi-functional and reconfigurable metasurface can be realized, capable of full control over incident radiation. Here, we experimentally validate a multi-functional metasurface architecture for the microwave regime, where in principle variable loads are connected behind the backplane to reconfigurably shape the complex surface impedance. As a proof-of-concept step, we fabricate several …
Recent advances in gradient metasurfaces have shown that only by locally controlling the bianisotropic response of the constituent cells can one ensure full control of refraction, i.e., arbitrarily modify the direction of the incident waves without producing scattering into unwanted directions. In this work, we propose and experimentally verify the use of a new acoustic cell architecture that provides enough degrees of freedom to fully control the bianisotropic response and minimizes the implementation losses produced by resonant elements. The versatility of the approach is shown through the d…
Optically resonant high-index dielectric metasurfaces featuring Mie-type electric and magnetic resonances are usually fabricated by means of planar technologies, which limit the degrees of freedom in tunability and scalability of the fabricated systems. Therefore, we propose a complimentary post-processing technique based on ultrashort ($\leq$ 10 ps) laser pulses. The process involves thermal effects: crystallization and reshaping, while the heat is localized by a high-precision positioning of the focused laser beam. Moreover, for the first time, the resonant behavior of dielectric metasurface…
In this paper we present the theoretical considerations and the design evolution of a proof-of-concept reconfigurable metasurface, primarily used as a tunable microwave absorber, but also as a wavefront manipulation and polarization conversion device in reflection. We outline the design evolution and all considerations taken into account, from the selection of patch shape, unit cell size, and substrate, to the topology of the structure that realizes the desired tunability. The presented design conforms to fabrication restrictions and is co-designed to work with an integrated circuit chip for p…
We introduce chiral gradient metasurfaces that allow perfect transmission of all the incident wave into a desired direction and simultaneous perfect rotation of the polarization of the refracted wave with respect to the incident one. Besides using gradient polarization densities which provide bending of the refracted wave with respect to the incident one, using metasurface inclusions that are chiral allows the polarization of the refracted wave to be rotated. We suggest a possible realization of the proposed device by discretizing the required equivalent surface polarization densities realized…
Modern electronic systems operate in complex electromagnetic environments and must handle noise and unwanted coupling. The capability to isolate or reject unwanted signals for mitigating vulnerabilities is critical in any practical application. In this work, we describe the use of a binary programmable metasurface to (i) control the spatial degrees of freedom for waves propagating inside an electromagnetic cavity and demonstrate the ability to create nulls in the transmission coefficient between selected ports; and (ii) create the conditions for coherent perfect absorption. Both objectives are…
Exciton-polaritons, elementary excitations arising from the strong coupling regime between photons and excitons in insulators or semiconductors, represent a promising platform for studying quantum fluids of light and realizing prospective all-optical devices. Among different materials for room temperature polaritonic devices, two-dimensional (2D) layered perovskites have recently emerged as one of the promising candidates thanks to their prominent excitonic features at room temperature. Here we report on the experimental demonstration of exciton-polaritons at room temperature in resonant metas…
Vast tunable optical components are realized based on dynamic reconfigurations of the incident wavefronts, such as beam steering and tunable lens. However, the dominant paradigm of current wavefront reconfiguration technologies relies on complex control systems with degrees of freedom much larger than output wavefronts, e.g. beam steering based on spatial light modulator or phased array antennas. Here, we propose a new paradigm for dynamic reconfiguration of arbitrary output wavefronts using control systems with the same degrees of freedom. As an example, a wavefront transformer is demonstrate…
Metasurfaces with strongly anisotropic optical properties can support deep subwavelength-scale confined electromagnetic waves (polaritons) that promise opportunities for controlling light in photonic and optoelectronic applications. We develop a mid-infrared hyperbolic metasurface by nanostructuring a thin layer of hexagonal boron nitride supporting deep subwavelength-scale phonon polaritons that propagate with in-plane hyperbolic dispersion. By applying an infrared nanoimaging technique, we visualize the concave (anomalous) wavefronts of a diverging polariton beam, which represent a landmark …
The unique properties of the emerging photonic materials - conducting nitrides and oxides - especially their tailorability, large damage thresholds, and the so-called epsilon-near-zero (ENZ) behavior, have enabled novel photonic phenomena spanning optical circuitry, tunable metasurfaces, and nonlinear optical devices. This work explores direct control of the optical properties of polycrystalline titanium nitride (TiN) and aluminum-doped zinc oxide (AZO) by tailoring the film thickness, and their potential for ENZ-enhanced photonic applications. We demonstrate that TiN-AZO bilayers act as Ferre…
Wavefront Shaping of Ultrasound Vortex through the Human Skull Enabled by Binary Acoustic Metasurfaces
School of Engineering Medicine, Beihang University（北京航空航天大学工程医学院）；Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Biomedical Engineering（北京生物医学工程高精尖创新中心）；Shenzhen Institute of Beihang University（北京航空航天大学深圳研究院）
In this work we present a new mechanism for designing phase-gradient metasurfaces (PGMs) to control an electromagnetic wavefront with high efficiency. Specifically, we design a transmission-type PGM formed by a periodic subwavelength metallic slit array filled with identical dielectrics of different heights. It is found that when Fabry-Perot (FP) resonances occur locally inside the dielectric regions, in addition to the common phenomenon of complete transmission, the transmitted phase differences between two adjacent slits are exactly the same, being a non-zero constant. These local FP resonan…
Here we make use of vanadium dioxide (VO2) to design a bifunctional metasurface working at the same targeted frequency. With the increase of temperature, the functionality of the designed metasurface can switch from a multi-channel retroreflector to a perfect absorber, caused by the phase transition of VO2 from insulator to conductor. Different from traditional bifunctional metasurfaces designed by simple composition of two functionalities, our proposed bifunctional metasurface is based on the interaction between two functionalities. The device shows good potential for the combination of wavef…
Optical metasurfaces (OMSs) have shown unprecedented capabilities for versatile wavefront manipulations at the subwavelength scale, thus opening fascinating perspectives for next generation ultracompact optical devices and systems. However, to date, most well-established OMSs are static, featuring well-defined optical responses determined by OMS configurations set during their fabrication. Dynamic OMS configurations investigated so far by using controlled constituent materials or geometrical parameters often exhibit specific limitations and reduced reconfigurability. Here, by combining a thin-…
Zhejiang Key Laboratory of 3D Micro/Nano Fabrication and Characterization, Department of Electronic Science and Engineering, School of Engineering, Westlake University（西湖大学工程学院电子科学与工程系三维微纳加工与表征浙江省重点实验室）；Westlake Center for Micro/Nano Fabrication, Westlake University（西湖大学微纳加工中心）；Eastern Institute of Technology（宁波东方理工大学）
We address the fundamental question of how to optimally probe a scene with electromagnetic (EM) radiation to yield a maximum amount of information relevant to a particular task. Machine learning (ML) techniques have emerged as powerful tools to extract task-relevant information from a wide variety of EM measurements, ranging from optics to the microwave domain. However, given the ability to actively illuminate a particular scene with a programmable EM wavefront, it is often not clear what wavefronts optimally encode information for the task at hand (e.g., object detection, classification). Her…
Light projection displays play an increasingly important role in our modern life. Core projection systems including liquid crystal displays and digital micromirror devices can impose spatial light modulation and actively shape light waves. Recently, the advent of metasurfaces has revolutionized design concepts in nanophotonics, enabling a new family of optical elements with exceptional degrees of freedom. Here, we demonstrate a light projection display technology based on optical metasurfaces, called digital metasurface device (DMSD). Each metasurface pixel in a DMSD is electrically reconfigur…
The recently proposed extreme-ultraviolet (EUV) beams with time-varying orbital angular momentum (OAM) realized by high-harmonic generation (HHG) provides extraordinary tools for quantum excitation control and particle manipulation. However, such an approach is not easily scalable to other frequency regimes. Here, we design a space-time-coding digital metasurface operating in microwave frequencies to experimentally generate different modes of time-varying OAM. We also introduce a concept of superhelicity of time-varying OAM with a higher-order twist of the wavefront structure, which can be fur…
In display technologies or data processing, planar and subwavelength free-space components suited for flat photonic devices are needed. Metasurfaces, which shape the optical wavefront within hundreds of nanometers, can provide a solution for thin and portable photonic devices, e.g. as CMOS-compatible modules. While conventional electro-optic modulators are inconvenient to operate in free space configurations, its principle can largely be applied to the development of active metasurfaces with the prospect of modulation speeds up to the GHz region. Here, we use this concept to realize fast and c…
Metasurfaces, the ultrathin media with extraordinary wavefront modulation ability, have shown versatile potential in manipulating waves. However, existing acoustic metasurfaces are limited by their narrow-band frequency-dependent capability, which severely hinders their real-world applications that usually require customized dispersion. To address this bottlenecking challenge, we report ultra-broadband achromatic metasurfaces that are capable of delivering arbitrary and frequency-independent wave properties by bottom-up topology optimization. We successively demonstrate three ultra-broadband f…
Compact, lightweight and high-performance spatial light modulators (SLMs) are crucial for modern optical technologies. The drive for pixel miniaturization, necessary to improve their performance, has led to a promising alternative, active optical metasurfaces, which enable tunable subwavelength wavefront manipulation. Here, we demonstrate an all-solid-state programmable transmissive SLM device based on Huygens dielectric metasurfaces. The metasurface features electrical tunability, provided by mature liquid crystals (LCs) technology. In contrast to conventional LC SLMs, our device enables high…
Dynamical diffraction effects in single crystals produce highly monochromatic parallel X-ray beams with a mutual separation of a few micrometer and a time-delay of a few fs -the so-called echoes. This ultrafast diffraction effect is used at X-ray Free Electron Lasers in self-seeding schemes to improve beam monochromaticity. Here, we present a coherent X-ray imaging measurement of echoes from Si crystals and demonstrate that a small surface strain can be used to tune their temporal delay. These results represent a first step towards the ambitious goal of strain-tailoring new X-ray optics.
