Flat Optics based on Metasurfaces

Federico Capasso
capasso@[Link]
[Link]

School of Engineering and Applied Sciences

Harvard University

Review :
[Link] and F. Capasso , “Flat Optics with Designer
Metasurfaces”
Nature Materials 13, 139 (2014)
 METAMATERIALS
Negative refraction
Metamaterials and Transformation Optics

Viktor G Veselago 1968 Sov. Phys. Usp. 10 509

A.J. Ward and J.B. Pendry, J. Mod. Opt. 43 (1996)
J.B. Pendry, D. Schurig and D.R. Smith, Science 312, 1780 (2006) Optical cloaking

Propagation of light is controlled by considering artificial 3D

materials with designed permittivity and permeability.

What can we do in 2D ? “metasurfaces”

 The Vision of Flat Optics
• Planar technology is central to Integrated Circuit technology ( $ 300 B industry):
Technology platform.
• Because of fabrication complexity 3D optical materials (metamaterials etc.) don’t
have a good chance of a major technology impact (large scale applications) at
optical wavelengths.
• Ho do I know? From Photonic Crystals: exciting science but very limited
technology penetration
• So we should look at what we can do in 2D with metasurfaces
METASURFACES FOR FLAT OPTICS
• Optically thin engineered metasurfaces for Wave Front Engineering (phase control):
• Local phase, amplitude and polarization control of light along the surface using
optical resonators
• New class of flat, compact and broadband components:(lenses, polarizers, etc.), be-
yond conventional diffractive optics
• Optical phased arrays for high speed wavefront control
 Can we replace optical components with flat ones?

Diffractive Optics

Conventional Optics

Optically thin subwavelength structured interface (metasurface)

Metasurface: an optically thin (<<λ) array of sub-wavelength size (<<λ) , sub-

wavelength (<<λ) spaced optical elements (resonators, antennas)
 Questions
 Can we create metasurfaces that transform an incident beam into arbitrarily
shaped (complex) beams (vortex, non-diffracting, etc. including vector beams) ?
 Can we make rapidly reconfigurable metasurfaces for fast wavefront control
(nanosecond, many orders of magnitude faster than Spatial Light Modulators)?
 Can we make a high N.A. flat lens without aberrations (spherical,
coma, etc.) and acromatic?
 Metasurface-based optical components : flat optics versus Fresnel Optics?
 Can we create metasurfaces that generate broadband vector beams (amplitude,
phase and polarization vary from point to point)?
 Are strong optical interference effects possible in films much thinner than the
wavelength (metafilms)?
 Physics and Technology of Disordered Metamaterials?
 What interesting physics and applications can emerge from embedding quantum
effects into metasurfaces?
 Which large area lithographic technique?
 CONVENTIONAL OPTICAL COMPONENTS

What if we introduce in the path a distribution of phase jumps?

6
 Huyghens metasurfaces: phase “discontinuities”

A sin(ωt - kx x) A sin(ωt - kx x + Φjump)

Φjump x

What if could have a spatial distribution of different phase discontinuities along the entire
interface?  can make any desired wave front !
How?  Optically thin array of sub-wavelength spaced resonators
Any type of resonator: metallic (optical antenna), dielectric, fabry-perot, etc. will do
Huygens principle
z z
Secondary wavelets

Interface Interface

Primary wavefront
 Phased-array antennas

[Link] Antenna

Phased-array antennas for light Photo: Hitachi Kokusai Electric, Inc. Yagi
Antenna Division

J. A. Fan et al., Science

328, 1135 (2010) P. Genevet et al, Nano Lett.
10, 4880–4883 (2010) L. Novotny et al., Nature Photon., 5, 83
Gradient Metasurfaces: broadband light bending
Assume a metasurface with a constant gradient of phase delay
dΦ/dx
One can easily show that light can be bent in arbitrary ways;
effect is broad band

Generalized Snell’s law:

Negative refraction
Generalized Law of reflection:

• Negative reflection
• Critical angle above which no reflection
Meta-interface for demonstrating generalized laws

anomalous
λ = 8 µm refraction

silicon

incident
anomalous
wave
reflection

 Optically thin: 50nm

 Subwavelength phase resolution: ~λ/5
 Instant imprinting of a linear phase distribution
 Broadband ( 5-11 microns)
10
N. Yu et al., Science 334, 333 (2011)
 No Spherical Aberration for flat lens

Wavefront = Envelope of Secondary Waves with radii

R(x) = λ/2π *φ(x)
High N.A. = 0.8
sinϑi ≠ ϑi
Spherical Hyperboloidal

φ(x) -0.5 0 x/f 0.5

-0.5 0 0.5 φ(x)
x/f

z
x
Lens Metasurface
 METALENS: Flat lens based on Metasurfaces

To focus at a certain focal f the interface must compensate for the distance of every point from a
spherical surface centered in the focus and with radius f.

No spherical aberration and large numerical aperture

F. Aieta et al. Nano Letters 12, 4932 (2012)
Dielectric resonators as new building block for tunable metasurfaces

TM12

TM11

TM13
w

k
H
E

• A simple rectangular dielectric antenna supports multiple modes of resonance that can be used to
introduce novel broadband functionalities
• When used at optical frequencies, dielectric materials do not suffer from parasitic optical losses
present in metals.
• High scattering efficiency ~ 90%. Scattering properties can be tuned by doping and gating standard
dielectrics or combining them with phase change materials.
 Fresnel Optics vs Metasurface Based Optics

non refractive
part

tmin

Fresnel Optics Metasurface

thin but finite thickness ultra - thin
finite lateral phase control sub wavelength phase control
polarization insensitive polarization control
diffractive: single wavelength
controlled dispersion: achromatic
operation
multiple steps of lithography:
N phase levellog2 N steps single lithographic step

a single digital pattern (one mask level) creates arbitrary analog phase profile !
VORTEX PLATE

Propagation
direction
Poynting
vector

3π/4 4π/4
2π/4 5π/4

π/4 6π/4

0o 7π/4
P. Genevet et al. Appl. Phys. Lett. 100, • Radial arrangements create flat lenses …
13101 (2012 •Angular arrangements of antennas create
optical vortices
Nanostructured Holograms for Vector Beam Generation

Computer Generated Holograms is the method of digitally generating holographic

interference patterns.

A holographic image can be generated e.g. by digitally computing a holographic

interference pattern and printing it onto a mask or film for subsequent illumination by

suitable coherent light source.

 Nanostructured computer generated holograms for vector beam generation

Vector beam: wavefront with spatially varying polarization

the phase shift for a given wavelength (λ1), will be observed at another wavelength (λ2) at the angle θ2 defined by

∆=0 ∆=45 ∆=90

∆
 Questions
 Can we create metasurfaces that transform an incident beam into arbitrarily
shaped (complex) beams (vortex, non-diffracting, etc. including vector beams) ?
 Can we make rapidly reconfigurable metasurfaces for fast wavefront control
(nanosecond, many orders of magnitude faster than Spatial Light Modulators)?
 Can we make a high N.A. flat lens without aberrations (spherical,
coma, etc.) and acromatic?
 Metasurface-based optical components : flat optics versus Fresnel Optics?
 Can we create metasurfaces that generate broadband vector beams (amplitude,
phase and polarization vary from point to point)?
 Are strong optical interference effects possible in films much thinner than the
wavelength (metafilms)?
 Physics and Technology of Disordered Metamaterials?
 What interesting physics and applications can emerge from embedding quantum
effects into metasurfaces?
 Which large area lithographic technique?
Optical interference in films much thinner than wavelength

 Last half century: a lot of work on optical coatings and filters using thin film interference
effects

 Nearly all thin film optical coatings use dielectric layers with low optical loss
and thickness on the order of a wavelength
 Anti-reflection (AR) coating
 A simple application: anti-reflective coatings

 Simplest/thinnest conventional AR coating: quarter-wave (~ 50 – 150 nm in the

visible) film (optimized for a particular wavelength)

Phasor diagram
Lossy dielectrics and metals
 Metals with finite conductivity and lossy dielectrics have weird interface
reflection phase shifts (i. e. not 0 or π)
 Different interference condition compared to the lossless case:
“resonance” can exist for films significantly thinner than λ/4

Im[r]

r0 r3
h << λ/4n Re[r]
r1 r2

 Takeaway message: it is possible to suppress reflection ( perfect absorber)

by using coherent effects in a system involving an ultra-thin, highly-lossy
layer

M. A. Kats et al, APL 101, 221101 (2012)

Making a perfect absorber
 Our experimental system comprises a thin (180 nm vs. λ ~ 5-15 μm) film of
vanadium dioxide (VO2) on sapphire
 VO2 serves as highly-absorbing layer (tunable)
 Sapphire is highly-reflecting due to phonon activity in the IR
Perfect absorber
 Temperature control of VO2 allows significant tuning of its
refractive index, and hence the sample reflectivity

 Reflectivity tuning from ~80% to 0.25% at 11.6um

 on/off ratio of more than 300
 entire structure is simply 180nm of VO2 on sapphire
1
297K
343K
0.8 346K
347K
Reflectivity

0.6 348K
351K
0.4 360K

0.2

0
5 10 15
Wavelength (µm)

M. A. Kats et al, APL 101, 221101 (2012)

VO2 in the transition region
 What happens in the transition region of VO2?

Qazilbash, Basov, et al, Science (2007)

 Nanoscale islands of metal-phase VO2 begin to form within a background of

dielectric-phase VO2, which then grow and connect
 The mixture can be viewed as a disordered, natural metamaterial
 The ratio of co-existing phases can be controlled  tunable medium
 Understanding the R = 0 condition
 Fix h = 180nm, λ = 11.75μm, sapphire substrate

 VO2 complex-index trajectory as a function of temperature goes through

perfect-absorption condition
 The minimum is very broad in n-k space, so the condition is insensitive to
small changes in material composition, defects
 Perfect absorber
 Experiment matches analytical calculations
 Used VO2 complex index data from Basov group (UCSD)

Experiment Calculation
normal incidence, 180nm VO2
1 1
297K 295K
343K 341K
0.8 346K 0.8 342K
347K 343K
Reflectivity

Reflectivity
0.6 348K 0.6 343.6K
351K 346K
0.4 360K 0.4 360K

0.2 0.2

0 0
5 10 15 5 10 15
Wavelength (µm) Wavelength (µm)

M. A. Kats et al, APL 101, 221101 (2012)

Coloring gold
 “Colored” gold films by coating with 5-20 nm germanium films 
much thinner than λ/4

Au + 7nm Ge

Bare Au Polished substrate

Au + 15nm Ge

Rough substrate
(still works!)

M. A. Kats et al, Nat. Materials 12, 20 (2013)

Thin film interference in lossy media
 Thin film interference in highly-absorbing films is unexpected
1. In the absence of optical loss reflection phase shifts are
fixed to either 0 or π

n1 < n2 n2 > n1 n1 perfect metal

π 0 π

 Lossy materials introduce nontrivial reflection phase shifts

  Resonant cavities can be made thinner than λ/4
  Short propagation lengths allow the use of highly
absorbing media
 Questions
 Can we create metasurfaces that transform an incident beam into arbitrarily
shaped (complex) beams (vortex, non-diffracting, etc. including vector beams) ?
 Can we make rapidly reconfigurable metasurfaces for fast wavefront control
(nanosecond, many orders of magnitude faster than Spatial Light Modulators)?
 Can we make a high N.A. flat lens without aberrations (spherical,
coma, etc.) and acromatic?
 Metasurface-based optical components : flat optics versus Fresnel Optics?
 Can we create metasurfaces that generate broadband vector beams (amplitude,
phase and polarization vary from point to point)?
 Are strong optical interference effects possible in films much thinner than the
wavelength (metafilms)?
 Physics and Technology of Disordered Metamaterials?
 What interesting physics and applications can emerge from embedding quantum
effects into metasurfaces? Decorating metasurfaces with single quantum
emitters (e.g. NV centers in nanodiamonds)
 Which large area lithographic technique? Namoimprint, soft lithography, etc.
 Flat optics
• New class of flat, compact and broadband components: lenses, polarizers., filters, etc.
• High speed tunable phased arrays for real-time wavefront control: role of phase change materials
• Lithography: from Optical to Nanoimprinting and Soft Lithography

High NA
Objective
Strechable
Materials

Smart
Phones

Non-Invasive Imaging for

Biomedical Application

Major opportunity in
Midir due to
poor refractory
materials