Ultrabroadband superoscillatory lens composed by plasmonic metasurfaces for subdiffraction light focusing

Conventional optics is diffraction limited due to the cutoff of spatial frequency components, and evanescent waves allow subdiffraction optics at the cost of complex near‐field manipulation. Recently, optical superoscillatory phenomena were employed to realize superresolution lenses in the far field, but suffering from very narrow working wavelength band due to the fragility of the superoscillatory light field. Here, an ultrabroadband superoscillatory lens (UBSOL) is proposed and realized by utilizing the metasurface‐assisted law of refraction and reflection in arrayed nanorectangular apertures with variant orientations. The ultrabroadband feature mainly arises from the nearly dispersionless phase profile of transmitted light through the UBSOL for opposite circulation polarization with respect to the incident light. It is demonstrated in experiments that subdiffraction light focusing behavior holds well with nearly unchanged focal patterns for wavelengths spanning across visible and near‐infrared light. This method is believed to find promising applications in superresolution microscopes or telescopes, high‐density optical data storage, etc.

     

超薄宽带平面聚焦超表面及其在高增益天线中的应用

针对相位梯度超表面在灵活操控电磁波与提高天线增益中的潜在应用,提出一种新型的宽带超表面单元,实现了在较宽频带范围内操控电磁波波前与提高天线增益.本文首先设计了一种圆环十字形对称单元来控制反射波的相移量,单元厚度为1 mm,尺寸为0.3λ_0(λ_0=20 mm),工作频段15—18 GHz,而后验证了由该单元组成的相位梯度超表面在15—18 GHz范围内对电磁波的奇异反射与聚焦特性.最后将设计的反射聚焦超表面应用于提高天线增益中,仿真与测试结果均表明,天线最高增益在15—18 GHz内平均增加了11 d B且-1 dB增益带宽为15—18 GHz(相对带宽为18.2%).由于厚度薄、重量轻、频带宽,设计的该单元拓展了相位梯度超表面在微波领域的应用,有望为高增益天线的实现提供新的方法.     

Highly tunable elastic dielectric metasurface lenses

Dielectric metasurfaces are two‐dimensional structures composed of nano‐scatterers that manipulate the phase and polarization of optical waves with subwavelength spatial resolution, thus enabling ultra‐thin components for free‐space optics. While high performance devices with various functionalities, including some that are difficult to achieve using conventional optical setups have been shown, most demonstrated components have fixed parameters. Here, we demonstrate highly tunable dielectric metasurface devices based on subwavelength thick silicon nano‐posts encapsulated in a thin transparent elastic polymer. As proof of concept, we demonstrate a metasurface microlens operating at 915 nm, with focal distance tuning from 600 μm to 1400 μm (over 952 diopters change in optical power) through radial strain, while maintaining a diffraction limited focus and a focusing efficiency above 50%. The demonstrated tunable metasurface concept is highly versatile for developing ultra‐slim, multi‐functional and tunable optical devices with widespread applications ranging from consumer electronics to medical devices and optical communications.

     

Real‐Time and Broadband Terahertz Wave Scattering Manipulation via Polarization‐Insensitive Conformal Graphene‐Based Coding Metasurfaces

Here, for the first time, the real‐time and broadband manipulation of terahertz (THz) waves are acquired by introducing a multifunctional graphene‐based coding metasurface (GBCM). The designed structure consists of subwavelength patterned graphene units whose operational statuses can be dynamically switched between two digital states of “0” and “1”. By engineering the spatial distribution of chemical potentials across the GBCM, various scattering patterns having single, two, four, and numerous reflection beams are elaborately achieved just within one planar structure. To compute the far‐field pattern of GBCM, an inverse discrete Fourier transform (IDFT) is established, providing a fast and efficient design method. The proposed GBCM provides a low reflection bellow ?10 dB over a broad frequency band ranging from 1 THz to 1.9 THz. In addition, the metasurface retains its low reflection behavior in a wide range of incident wave angles for both TE and TM polarizations. According to conformal invariance of graphene sheets, the stealth property of GBCM is well preserved while wrapping around a curved object. The proposed technique of real‐time scattering manipulation leads to multifunctional THz devices, opening new routes contributing to numerous applications such as imaging and stealth technology.     

Single-layer broadband planar antenna using ultrathin high-efficiency focusing metasurfaces

Phase gradient metasurfaces(PGMS) offer a fascinating ability to control the amplitude and phase of the electromagnetic(EM) waves on a subwavelength scale, resulting in new applications of designing novel microwave devices with improved performances. In this paper, a reflective symmetrical element, consisting of orthogonally I-shaped structures, has been demonstrated with an approximately parallel phase response from 15 GHz to 22 GHz, which results in an interesting wideband property. For practical design, a planar antenna is implemented by a well-optimized focusing metasurface and excited by a self-designed Vivaldi antenna at the focus. Numerical and experimental results coincide well. The planar antenna has a series of merits such as a wide 3-d B gain bandwidth of 15–22 GHz, an average gain enhancement of 16 d B, a comparable aperture efficiency of better than 45% at 18 GHz, and also a simple fabrication process. The proposed reflective metasurface opens up a new avenue to design wideband microwave devices.     

Polarization-insensitive unidirectional spoof surface plasmon polaritons coupling by gradient metasurface

A polarization-insensitive unidirectional spoof surface plasmon polariton(SPP) coupler mediated by a gradient metasurface is proposed. The field distributions and average Poynting vector of the coupled spoof SPPs are analyzed. The simulated and experimental results support the theoretical analysis and indicate that the designed gradient metasurface can couple both the parallel-polarized and normally-polarized incident waves to the spoof SPPs propagating in the same direction at about 5 GHz.     

人工光学微结构研究进展

受益于新世纪以来微纳加工技术的快速发展,人工光学微结构的相关研究在近二十年里取得了长足进步。人工光学微结构集合了光学介观体系丰富的物理机理、有力的光参量调控手段,为实现对光与物质相互作用的有效操控提供了一种全新的方式,为光学器件的小型化、集成化和轻质化提供了新的途径。文章将对人工光学微结构这些年的发展进行概述,并展示该研究领域的最新研究进展。     

A Thin Self-Feeding Janus Metasurface for Manipulating Incident Waves and Emitting Radiation Waves Simultaneously

A thin metasurface has shown powerful capabilities in controlling either incident electromagnetic (EM) waves or radiation waves, but is difficult for both. Here, a self-feeding Janus metasurface (SFJ-MS) is proposed to manipulate the incident EM waves and emit the radiated waves simultaneously, which can realize the polarization conversion of incident waves, scattering control, EM wave radiation, and radiation-beam steering. On the upper of SFJ-MS, a diagonal-split square ring and a rectangular patch with rotation for radiation are designed to introduce anisotropy in the meta-atom for converting the polarization of incident EM waves. On the bottom of SFJ-MS, a self-feeding microstructure converts the alternating current into the excitation of SFJ-MS to emit the EM waves to free space. The multiple functions of SFJ-MS are comprehensively substantiated by measured results, which are in agreements with the stringent simulations. This SFJ-MS, with lightweight, compact, low profile, and power-efficient features, can find potential applications in phased array radar systems, wireless communication systems, polarimetric radar imaging systems, and target detection systems.