Catenary-based phase change metasurfaces for mid-infrared switchable wavefront control.

Active wave manipulation by ultracompact meta-devices is highly embraced in recent years, but a major concern still exists due to the lack of functional reconfigurability. Moreover, the phase or amplitude discontinuities introduced by collective response of discrete meta-atoms make current meta-devices far from practical applications. Here, we demonstrate actively tunable wavefront control with high-efficiency by combining catenary-based meta-atoms for intrinsic continuous phase regulation with the chalcogenide phase change material (PCM) of Ge2Sb2Te5. First, switchable beam deflection is demonstrated in a wide mid-IR range between 8 µm and 9.5 µm with 'on' and 'off' states for beam steering between anomalous and normal specular reflections. Second, a switchable meta-axicon for zero order Bessel beam generation is demonstrated with full width at half maximum (FWHM) as small as ∼0.41 λ (λ = 12 µm). As a result, our scheme for active and continuous phase control potentially paves an avenue to construct active photonic devices especially for applications where large contrast ratio is highly desirable, such as optoelectronic integration, wavefront engineering and so on.

Intercoupling of Cascaded Metasurfaces for Broadband Spectral Scalability.

Electromagnetic metasurfaces have been intensively used as ultra-compact and easy-to-integrate platforms for versatile wave manipulations from optical to terahertz (THz) and millimeter wave (MMW) ranges. In this paper, the less investigated effects of the interlayer coupling of multiple metasurfaces cascaded in parallel are intensively exploited and leveraged for scalable broadband spectral regulations. The hybridized resonant modes of cascaded metasurfaces with interlayer couplings are well interpreted and simply modeled by the transmission line lumped equivalent circuits, which are used in return to guide the design of the tunable spectral response. In particular, the interlayer gaps and other parameters of double or triple metasurfaces are deliberately leveraged to tune the inter-couplings for as-required spectral properties, i.e., the bandwidth scaling and central frequency shift. As a proof of concept, the scalable broadband transmissive spectra are demonstrated in the millimeter wave (MMW) range by cascading multilayers of metasurfaces sandwiched together in parallel with low-loss dielectrics (Rogers 3003). Finally, both the numerical and experimental results confirm the effectiveness of our cascaded model of multiple metasurfaces for broadband spectral tuning from a narrow band centered at 50 GHz to a broadened range of 40~55 GHz with ideal side steepness, respectively.

Phase Change Metasurfaces by Continuous or Quasi-Continuous Atoms for Active Optoelectronic Integration.

In recent decades, metasurfaces have emerged as an exotic and appealing group of nanophotonic devices for versatile wave regulation with deep subwavelength thickness facilitating compact integration. However, the ability to dynamically control the wave-matter interaction with external stimulus is highly desirable especially in such scenarios as integrated photonics and optoelectronics, since their performance in amplitude and phase control settle down once manufactured. Currently, available routes to construct active photonic devices include micro-electromechanical system (MEMS), semiconductors, liquid crystal, and phase change materials (PCMs)-integrated hybrid devices, etc. For the sake of compact integration and good compatibility with the mainstream complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) process for nanofabrication and device integration, the PCMs-based scheme stands out as a viable and promising candidate. Therefore, this review focuses on recent progresses on phase change metasurfaces with dynamic wave control (amplitude and phase or wavefront), and especially outlines those with continuous or quasi-continuous atoms in favor of optoelectronic integration.