Mid-infrared cylindrical vector beams enabled by dielectric metasurfaces

Anastasia Zalogina*, Luyao Wang, Elizaveta Melik-Gaykazyan, Yuri Kivshar, Ilya Shadrivov, Sergey Kruk

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    8 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Over the last decade, photonics in the mid-infrared (mid-IR) frequency range had major advances in both generation and detection of light. However, efficient manipulation of the mid-IR light still faces many challenges. Spatially inhomogeneous control over the wavefront and polarization of mid-IR radiation is particularly difficult. Many standard techniques used for visible and near-infrared frequencies, such as liquid crystal-based spatial light modulation, are not applicable in the mid-IR due to unfavorable material properties in that spectral range. Here, we demonstrate spatially inhomogeneous polarization control of the mid-infrared light using custom-designed vortex retarders. Vortex retarders, while being widely used in the near-infrared and visible spectral ranges for generation of cylindrical vector beams, have been missing in the mid-infrared spectral range. Our implementation of mid-infrared vortex retarders is based on the concept of metasurfaces. We demonstrate metasurface-based vortex retarders at the wavelengths of 2.9 and 3.5 μm. We compare the performance of all-dielectric metasurface vortex retarders with the elements arranged in square and hexagonal lattices [Arbabi et al., Nat. Nanotechnol. 10, 937-943 (2015) and Arbabi et al., Nat. Commun. 6, 7069 (2015)]. Our work could accelerate the adoption of metasurfaces for the development of novel classes of mid-infrared optical components.

    Original languageEnglish
    Article number121113
    JournalAPL Materials
    Volume9
    Issue number12
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 1 Dec 2021

    Fingerprint

    Dive into the research topics of 'Mid-infrared cylindrical vector beams enabled by dielectric metasurfaces'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

    Cite this