Broadband decoupling of intensity and polarization with vectorial Fourier metasurfaces.

Intensity and polarization are two fundamental components of light. Independent control of them is of tremendous interest in many applications. In this paper, we propose a general vectorial encryption method, which enables arbitrary far-field light distribution with the local polarization, including orientations and ellipticities, decoupling intensity from polarization across a broad bandwidth using geometric phase metasurfaces. By revamping the well-known iterative Fourier transform algorithm, we propose "à la carte" design of far-field intensity and polarization distribution with vectorial Fourier metasurfaces. A series of non-conventional vectorial field distribution, mimicking cylindrical vector beams in the sense that they share the same intensity profile but with different polarization distribution and a speckled phase distribution, is demonstrated. Vectorial Fourier optical metasurfaces may enable important applications in the area of complex light beam generation, secure optical data storage, steganography and optical communications.

Blue to yellow emission from (Ga,In)/GaN quantum wells grown on pixelated silicon substrate.

It is shown that substrate pixelisation before epitaxial growth can significantly impact the emission color of semiconductor heterostructures. The wavelength emission from InxGa1-xN/GaN quantum wells can be shifted from blue to yellow simply by reducing the mesa size from 90 × 90 µm2 to 10 × 10 µm2 of the patterned silicon used as the substrate. This color shift is mainly attributed to an increase of the quantum well thickness when the mesa size decreases. The color is also affected, in a lesser extent, by the trench width between the mesas. Cathodoluminescence hyperspectral imaging is used to map the wavelength emission of the InxGa1-xN/GaN quantum wells. Whatever the mesa size is, the wavelength emission is red-shifted at the mesa edges due to a larger quantum well thickness and In composition.

Ptychography retrieval of fully polarized holograms from geometric-phase metasurfaces.

Controlling light properties with diffractive planar elements requires full-polarization channels and accurate reconstruction of optical signal for real applications. Here, we present a general method that enables wavefront shaping with arbitrary output polarization by encoding both phase and polarization information into pixelated metasurfaces. We apply this concept to convert an input plane wave with linear polarization to a holographic image with arbitrary spatial output polarization. A vectorial ptychography technique is introduced for mapping the Jones matrix to monitor the reconstructed metasurface output field and to compute the full polarization properties of the vectorial far field patterns, confirming that pixelated interfaces can deflect vectorial images to desired directions for accurate targeting and wavefront shaping. Multiplexing pixelated deflectors that address different polarizations have been integrated into a shared aperture to display several arbitrary polarized images, leading to promising new applications in vector beam generation, full color display and augmented/virtual reality imaging.

Metasurface orbital angular momentum holography.

Allowing subwavelength-scale-digitization of optical wavefronts to achieve complete control of light at interfaces, metasurfaces are particularly suited for the realization of planar phase-holograms that promise new applications in high-capacity information technologies. Similarly, the use of orbital angular momentum of light as a new degree of freedom for information processing can further improve the bandwidth of optical communications. However, due to the lack of orbital angular momentum selectivity in the design of conventional holograms, their utilization as an information carrier for holography has never been implemented. Here we demonstrate metasurface orbital angular momentum holography by utilizing strong orbital angular momentum selectivity offered by meta-holograms consisting of GaN nanopillars with discrete spatial frequency distributions. The reported orbital angular momentum-multiplexing allows lensless reconstruction of a range of distinctive orbital angular momentum-dependent holographic images. The results pave the way to the realization of ultrahigh-capacity holographic devices harnessing the previously inaccessible orbital angular momentum multiplexing.