Perfect Control of Diffraction Patterns with Phase-Gradient Metasurfaces.

Phase-gradient metasurfaces (PGMs) constitute an efficient platform for deflection of a beam in a desired direction. According to the generalized Snell's law, the direction of the reflected/refracted wave can be tuned by the spatial phase function provided by the PGMs. However, most studies on PGM focus only on a single diffraction order, that is, the incident wave can be reflected or refracted to a single target direction. Even in the case of multiple beams pointing in different directions, the beams are still in the same order mode, and the energy carried by different beams cannot be controlled. In addition, the energy ratio of multiple beams is generally uncontrollable. Here, we propose a general method to perfectly control diffraction patterns based on a multi-beam PGM. An analytical solution for arbitrarily controlling diffraction beams is derived through which the generation and energy distribution in high-order diffraction beams can be achieved. Three metasurfaces with different diffraction orders and energy ratios are designed and fabricated to demonstrate the proposed method. The efficiencies of diffraction for the desired channels are close to 100%. The simulated and measured far-field patterns are in good agreement with theoretical predictions, validating the proposed method that provides a new way to design multi-beam antennas and that has significance in wireless communication applications.

A Fully Phase-Modulated Metasurface as An Energy-Controllable Circular Polarization Router.

Geometric metasurfaces primarily follow the physical mechanism of Pancharatnam-Berry (PB) phases, empowering wavefront control of cross-polarized reflective/transmissive light components. However, inherently accompanying the cross-polarized components, the copolarized output components have not been attempted in parallel in existing works. Here, a general method is proposed to construct phase-modulated metasurfaces for implementing functionalities separately in co- and cross-polarized output fields under circularly polarized (CP) incidence, which is impossible to achieve with solely a geometric phase. By introducing a propagation phase as an additional degree of freedom, the electromagnetic (EM) energy carried by co- and cross-polarized transmitted fields can be fully phase-modulated with independent wavefronts. Under one CP incidence, a metasurface for separate functionalities with controllable energy repartition is verified by simulations and proof-of-principle microwave experiments. A variety of applications can be readily expected in spin-selective optics, spin-Hall metasurfaces, and multitasked metasurfaces operating in both reflective and transmissive modes.

Independent phase modulation for quadruplex polarization channels enabled by chirality-assisted geometric-phase metasurfaces.

Geometric-phase metasurfaces, recently utilized for controlling wavefronts of circular polarized (CP) electromagnetic waves, are drastically limited to the cross-polarization modality. Combining geometric with propagation phase allows to further control the co-polarized output channel, nevertheless addressing only similar functionality on both co-polarized outputs for the two different CP incident beams. Here we introduce the concept of chirality-assisted phase as a degree of freedom, which could decouple the two co-polarized outputs, and thus be an alternative solution for designing arbitrary modulated-phase metasurfaces with distinct wavefront manipulation in all four CP output channels. Two metasurfaces are demonstrated with four arbitrary refraction wavefronts, and orbital angular momentum modes with four independent topological charge, showcasing complete and independent manipulation of all possible CP channels in transmission. This additional phase addressing mechanism will lead to new components, ranging from broadband achromatic devices to the multiplexing of wavefronts for application in reconfigurable-beam antenna and wireless communication systems.

High-Efficiency Metalenses with Switchable Functionalities in Microwave Region.

Regarding miniaturized and integrated systems, a single flat device that possesses diversified functionalities is highly desirable in optical to microwave regimes. With this perspective, bifunctional metalenses constructed by meta-atoms with integrated response to propagation phase and geometric phase are proposed for independent manipulation of right-handed and left-handed circularly polarized waves. The derived general criterion is verified in the microwave region from three bifunctional metalenses operating in transmission manner. The proof-of-concept measurements show that all these metalenses exhibit two independent functionalities that can be switched by flipping the helicity of the incident illumination. Very high efficiencies of around 80%, with peak value of 91%, are achieved by the ultrathin metasurfaces of thickness 0.15λ0. The proposed metasurfaces provide a promising route for the realization of reconfigurable lenses and antennas in wireless communication systems.

Phase-engineered metalenses to generate converging and non-diffractive vortex beam carrying orbital angular momentum in microwave region.

In this paper, ultra-thin metalenses are proposed to generate converging and non-diffractive vortex beam carrying orbital angular momentum (OAM) in microwave region. Phase changes are introduced to the transmission cross-polarized wave by tailoring spatial orientation of Pancharatnam-Berry phase unit cell. Based on the superposition of phase profile of spiral phase plate and that of a converging lens or an axicon, vortex beam carrying OAM mode generated by the metalens can also exhibit characteristics of a focusing beam or a Bessel beam. Measured field intensities and phase distributions at microwave frequencies verify the theoretical design procedure. The proposed method provides an efficient approach to control the radius of vortex beam carrying OAM mode in microwave wireless applications for medium-short range distance.