Nonlinear Metasurface for Structured Light with Tunable Orbital Angular Momentum

Abstract

Orbital angular momentum (OAM) beams may create a new paradigm for the future classical and quantum communication systems. A majority of existing OAM beam converters are bulky, slow, and cannot withstand high powers. Here, we design and experimentally demonstrate an ultra-fast, compact chalcogenide-based all-dielectric metasurface beam converter which has the ability to transform a Hermite–Gaussian (HG) beam into a beam carrying an OAM at near infrared wavelength. Depending on the input beam intensity, the topological charge carried by the output OAM beam can be switched between positive and negative. The device provides high transmission efficiency and is fabricated by a standard electron beam lithography. Arsenic trisulfide (As 2 S 3 ) chalcogenide glass (ChG) offers ultra-fast and large third-order nonlinearity as well as a low two-photon absorption coefficient in the near infrared spectral range.

Keywords

• nonlinear optics
• metasurfaces
• structured light