Flat Engineered Multichannel Reflectors

Abstract

Recent advances in engineered gradient metasurfaces have enabled unprecedented opportunities for light manipulation using optically thin sheets, such as anomalous refraction, reflection, or focusing of an incident beam. Here, we introduce a concept of multichannel functional metasurfaces, which are able to control incoming and outgoing waves in a number of propagation directions simultaneously. In particular, we reveal a possibility to engineer multichannel reflectors. Under the assumption of reciprocity and energy conservation, we find that there exist three basic functionalities of such reflectors: specular, anomalous, and retroreflections. Multichannel response of a general flat reflector can be described by a combination of these functionalities. To demonstrate the potential of the introduced concept, we design and experimentally test three different multichannel reflectors: three- and five-channel retroreflectors and a three-channel power splitter. Furthermore, by extending the concept to reflectors supporting higher-order Floquet harmonics, we forecast the emergence of other multichannel flat devices, such as isolating mirrors, complex splitters, and multi-functional gratings.