Interference-assisted kaleidoscopic meta-plexer for arbitrary spin-wavefront manipulation

Abstract

Achieving simultaneous polarization and wavefront control, especially circular polarization with the auxiliary degree of freedom of light and spin angular momentum, is of fundamental importance in many optical applications. Interferences are typically undesirable in highly integrated photonic circuits and metasurfaces. Here, we propose an interference-assisted metasurface-multiplexer (meta-plexer) that counterintuitively exploits constructive and destructive interferences between hybrid meta-atoms and realizes independent spin-selective wavefront manipulation. Such kaleidoscopic meta-plexers are experimentally demonstrated via two types of single-layer spin-wavefront multiplexers that are composed of spatially rotated anisotropic meta-atoms. One type generates a spin-selective Bessel-beam wavefront for spin-down light and a low scattering cross-section for stealth for spin-up light. The other type demonstrates versatile control of the vortex wavefront, which is also characterized by the orbital angular momentum of light, with frequency-switchable numbers of beams under linearly polarized wave excitation. Our findings offer a distinct interference-assisted concept for realizing advanced multifunctional photonics with arbitrary and independent spin-wavefront features. A variety of applications can be readily anticipated in optical diodes, isolators, and spin-Hall meta-devices without cascading bulky optical elements. © 2019, The Author(s).