Geometric phase for multidimensional manipulation of photonics spin Hall effect and helicity-dependent imaging

Abstract

The spin Hall effect of light, associated with spin-orbit interactions, describes a transport phenomenon with optical spin-dependent splitting, leading to a plethora of applications such as sensing, imaging, and spin-controlled nanophotonics. Although geometric meatsurfaces can mimic photonic spin Hall effect by spatially splitting left-hand circularly polarized and right-hand circularly polarized states of electromagnetic waves with anomalous refraction or reflection angles, the geometric phase generated by metasurfaces hinders metalenses to realize simultaneous focusing of different spin states, limiting further applications. Here, we propose and experimentally demonstrate an approach to realizing a spin Hall metalens that can focus terahertz waves with different spin states and flexibly manipulate spin-dependent focal points in multiple spatial dimensions based on a pure geometric phase. A dielectric metasurface consisting of micropillars with identical shape and different in-plane orientations is designed to realize the multidimensional manipulation of photonics spin Hall effect in terahertz region. Furthermore, helicity-dependent imaging is demonstrated by the terahertz spin Hall metalens. The uniqueness and robust approach for manipulating spin photons may have a significant impact on designing ultra-compact and multifunctional devices and spin photonics devices.

Keywords

• geometry phase
• helicity-dependent imaging
• metalens
• photonics spin hall effect