Dispersionless phase discontinuities for controlling light propagation

Lingling Huang, Xianzhong Chen, Holger Mühlenbernd, Guixin Li, Benfeng Bai, Qiaofeng Tan, Guofan Jin, Thomas Zentgraf*, Shuang Zhang

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articlepeer-review

924 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Ultrathin metasurfaces consisting of a monolayer of subwavelength plasmonic resonators are capable of generating local abrupt phase changes and can be used for controlling the wavefront of electromagnetic waves. The phase change occurs for transmitted or reflected wave components whose polarization is orthogonal to that of a linearly polarized (LP) incident wave. As the phase shift relies on the resonant features of the plasmonic structures, it is in general wavelength-dependent. Here, we investigate the interaction of circularly polarized (CP) light at an interface composed of a dipole antenna array to create spatially varying abrupt phase discontinuities. The phase discontinuity is dispersionless, that is, it solely depends on the orientation of dipole antennas, but not their spectral response and the wavelength of incident light. By arranging the antennas in an array with a constant phase gradient along the interface, the phenomenon of broadband anomalous refraction is observed ranging from visible to near-infrared wavelengths. We further design and experimentally demonstrate an ultrathin phase gradient interface to generate a broadband optical vortex beam based on the above principle.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)5750-5755
Number of pages6
JournalNano Letters
Volume12
Issue number11
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 14 Nov 2012

Scopus Subject Areas

  • Bioengineering
  • Chemistry(all)
  • Materials Science(all)
  • Condensed Matter Physics
  • Mechanical Engineering

User-Defined Keywords

  • Metamaterials
  • phase discontinuities
  • plasmonics
  • refraction
  • vortex beam

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Dispersionless phase discontinuities for controlling light propagation'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this