Resonant Nonlinear Synthetic Metasurface with Combined Phase and Amplitude Modulations

Nonlinear metasurfaces provide a promising platform for integrated nonlinear photonic devices owing to their unprecedented capability of nonlinear wavefront manipulation. However, the previously reported second-harmonic (SH) metasurfaces are mainly based on the nonlinear Pancharatnam–Berry phase modulation. While this method is quite convenient and robust, it shows limitations of modulation efficiency and the difficulty in extending to multidimensional combined modulations. Here, the resonant nonlinear synthetic metasurface is proposed and experimentally demonstrated for independent phase and amplitude modulations of the SH beam. A high SH modulation efficiency of 75% (with a theoretical limit of 90%) is achieved in the polarization-dependent SH metalens. Moreover, SH holographic imaging with phase and amplitude (at 2 and 4 levels) combined modulation is realized experimentally. Compared with the pure-phase modulation, the signal-to-noise ratios are increased by 2 and 3 times when 2- and 4-level amplitude controls are introduced. This is not only an important step in the improvement and innovation of holographic display technology, but also paves a distinct avenue toward multifunctional, higher efficiency, and ultracompact nonlinear optical devices.