Metasurface provides subwavelength structures for manipulating wavefronts of light. The benefits of subwavelength components offer a continuous modulation of amplitude, phase, and polarization, thus eliminating the production of higher-order images and improving the utilization of light intensity. Despite the rapid progress in this field, multiparameter control of light using single layer metasurface is rarely reported. In fact, multiparameter control of light helps to improve information storage capacity and image fidelity. With simultaneous manipulation of polarization and amplitude at each pixel, it is possible to encode two separate images into one metasurface and reconstruct them under proper conditions. In a proof of concept experiment, we demonstrate an independent display of two binary images at the same position with polarization de-multiplexing from a single metasurface. This unique technology of encoding two images through amplitude and polarization manipulation provides a new opportunity for various applications in, such as encryption, information storage, polarization holograms, optical communications and fundamental physics.
Metasurfaces have become a new photonic structure for providing potential applications to develop integrated devices with small thickness, because they can introduce an abrupt phase change by arrays of scatterers. To be applied more widely, active metasurface devices are highly desired. Here, a tunable terahertz meta-lens whose focal length is able to be electrically tuned by ~4.45λ is demonstrated experimentally. The lens consists of a metallic metasurface and a monolayer graphene. Due to the dependence of the abrupt phase change of the metasurface on the graphene chemical potential, which can be modulated using an applied gate voltage, the focal length is changed from 10.46 to 12.24 mm when the gate voltage increases from 0 to 2.0 V. Experimental results are in good agreement with the theoretical hypothesis. This type of electrically controlled meta-lens could widen the application of terahertz technology.
A scheme is proposed to generate GHZ state and realize quantum phase gate for superconducting qubits placed in a microwave cavity. This scheme uses resonant interaction between the qubits and the cavity mode, so that the interaction time is short, which is important in view of decoherence. In particular, the phase gate can be realized simply with a single interaction between the qubits and the cavity mode. With cavity decay being considered, the fidelity and success probability are both very close to unity.
Diffractive optical elements(DOEs) with spectrum separation and beam concentration(SSBC) functions have important applications in solar cell systems. With the SSBC DOEs, the sunlight radiation is divided into several wave bands so as to be effectively absorbed by photovoltaic materials with different band gaps. A new method is proposed for designing high-efficiency SSBC DOEs, which is physically simple, numerically fast, and universally applicable. The SSBC DOEs are designed by the new design method, and their performances are analyzed by the Fresnel diffraction integral method.The new design method takes two advantages over the previous design method. Firstly, the optical focusing efficiency is heightened by up to 10%. Secondly, focal positions of all the designed wavelengths can be designated arbitrarily and independently. It is believed that the designed SSBC DOEs should have practical applications to solar cell systems.
The silver(Ag)/photoresist(PR)/Ag structure, widely used in plasmonic photolithography, is fabricated on silicon substrate. The surface roughness of the top Ag film is measured and analyzed systematically. In particular, combined with template stripping technology, the lower side of the top Ag film is imaged by an atomic force microscope. The topographies show that the lower side surface is rougher than the initial surface of the subjacent PR film, which is mainly attributable to the deformation caused by particle collisions during the deposition of the Ag film. Additionally, further measurements show that the Ag film deposited on the PR exhibits a flatter upper side morphology than that directly deposited on the silicon substrate. This is explained by the different growth modes of Ag films on different substrates. This work will be beneficial to morphology analysis and performance evaluation for the films in optical and plasmonic devices.
It has been recently demonstrated that negative-index dispersion and mode degeneracy can be achieved by manipulating a spoof-insulator-spoof(SIS) waveguide. In this paper, we propose a new SIS waveguide, which is composed of two spoof surface plasmon polaritons(SSPPs) waveguides drilled with periodic rhomboidal grooves. Both the symmetric and asymmetric cases are investigated. Our simulation results show that the asymmetric SIS waveguides are more significant.By tailoring the tilt of the rhomboidal grooves, the negative-index dispersion can be achieved and the microwave band gap(MBG) can be effectively modulated. At a critical tilt, there appears an accidental mode degeneracy at the edge of the first Brillouin zone. The excitation and propagation of the two coupled modes sustained by the asymmetric SIS waveguides are also demonstrated.