Speaker
Description
Recent nanotechnology and metasurface advancements have enabled ultraprecise light control, catalysing developments in energy conversion, sensing and imaging. Simultaneously, structuring light in space-time has opened new realms for exploring the physics of both fundamental and applied light-matter interactions. Unfortunately, conventional space-time light structuring methods require large, complex optical setups presenting a formidable challenge for widespread usage. Here we experimentally demonstrate a novel simple single-step metasurface design for creating high-fidelity optical vortices in space-time addressing these challenges by exploiting the extraordinary compactness and stability of metasurfaces. Our design employs two offset subwavelength PTFE and copper gratings. This forms a 2π spiral phase by breaking mirror symmetry at the Γ-point and utilizing the structure’s quasi-bound state in the continuum (q-BIC) mode. We showcase this device’s versatility by generating space-time scalar beams, vector beams and even skyrmions, in all cases showing excellent agreement between our numerical simulations and experiments. This work thus achieves single-step, compact sculpturing of light in both space and time, paving the way toward more widespread usage of spatiotemporal light with subwavelength engineered metasurfaces.
| Apply for student award at which level: | PhD |
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| Consent on use of personal information: Abstract Submission | Yes, I ACCEPT |