Versatile Polarization Generation and Manipulation Using Dielectric Metasurfaces

Advances in polarization optics and integrated photonics require fundamentally new polarization-managing strategies allowing for efficient generation and complete control over vectorial fields with well-defined polarization states using surface-confined configurations with ultracompact footprints and extended bandwidths. Recently, metasurfaces have been extensively explored to demonstrate compact planar devices enabling diverse polarization control. However, the main drawback of the state-of-the-art metasurface-based polarization converters is related to their limitations resulting in individual simple functionalities and low-efficiencies. Here, the strategy for producing dielectric metasurfaces that efficiently generate diversified polarization states with controllable wavefronts and high efficiencies over a broadband spectrum range from a linearly-polarized light source by generalizing an existing theory of simultaneous phase and polarization control with birefringent meta-atoms, is demonstrated. Advanced polarization and wavefront manipulation functionalized to realize an efficient polarization-resolved multifocal metalens and vectorial holographic display is accomplished using judiciously designed dielectric metasurfaces composed of segmented sub-arrays capable of manipulating, simultaneously and independently, both polarization and phase of the transmitted beams. The versatility of this concept provides opportunities to develop a complete set of flat polarization optics for integrated photonics and quantum optics.