Nanophotonics (Oct 2023)

Dynamic propagation of an Airy beam in metasurface-enabled gradiently-aligned liquid crystals

  • Gao Meini,
  • Wang Jiawei,
  • Cai Wenfeng,
  • Cheng Ming,
  • Hao Xichen,
  • Wang Yuhan,
  • Liu Ying,
  • Kong Delai,
  • Liu Jianxun,
  • Dai Haitao,
  • Liu Yan Jun

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1515/nanoph-2023-0516
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 12, no. 22
pp. 4205 – 4214

Abstract

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Due to the unique self-acceleration, self-healing, and non-diffraction properties, Airy beams have been explored extensively and found applications in various fields. It has been proven as an essential aspect to tune the trajectory of Airy beams for extensive applications. In this paper, we propose a method based on liquid crystal (LC) alignment with metasurfaces, which enables dynamic tuning of the trajectory of Airy beams. Benefiting from both the tunable property of LCs and the compact alignment of metasurfaces, we achieve a sizeable linear potential in a short distance, which leads to the effective tuning of the trajectory of Airy beams dynamically. The introduction of metasurfaces into the alignment of LCs provides a promising method to manipulate the planar optical field.

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