Sensing spatial coherence of light with metamaterial surfaces
Sensing spatial coherence of light with metamaterial surfaces
We report on a discovery that homogeneous metallic non-diffracting metasurfaces of a certain type allow robust speckle-free discrimination between different degrees of the spatial coherence of light. The effect has no direct analogue in natural materials and has been previously unseen in metamaterials (and metasurfaces in particular). It results in a qualitative change of the optical response of metasurfaces, whereby their transmission (and reflection) spectra acquires different spectral components, depending on whether the nano-structures are illuminated with spatially coherent or incoherent light. This effect is robust and exceptionally strong (e.g., the resulting absolute change in transmission exceeds 50%), which makes it immediately suitable for practical applications, such as optical metrology, imaging and communications. Among the metasurfaces that have been found to exhibit the new effect are planar metamaterials featuring a continuous periodic zigzag pattern. The reported samples were designed to operate in the near-IR part of the spectrum and composed of arrays of continuous zigzag nano-wires, as well as their inversion, i.e., continuous zigzag nano-slits, covering the area of ~20x20µm2. The measured data suggest that these apparently trivial metasurfaces, while non-diffracting, can indeed behave differently under spatially incoherent and coherent illumination. The systematic experimental investigation and rigorous theoretical analysis of this phenomenon (the results of which will be presented at the conference) reveal that the effect is underpinned by strongly non-local response of the metasurfaces. Its mechanism involves interference of light scattered via non-dispersive delocalised plasmon modes uniquely supported by the fabric of the metasurfaces.
Buchnev, Oleksandr
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Frank, Thomas
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Cookson, Tamsin
70c15876-7c6d-4de5-a0ce-cc4beb12a324
Kaczmarek, Malgosia
408ec59b-8dba-41c1-89d0-af846d1bf327
Lagoudakis, Pavlos
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Fedotov, Vassili
3725f5cc-2d0b-4e61-95c5-26d187c84f25
August 2019
Buchnev, Oleksandr
60cdb0d2-3388-47be-a066-61b3b396f69d
Frank, Thomas
3d1aae1b-7dd5-4ee3-8f06-c5a7f0acbe6f
Cookson, Tamsin
70c15876-7c6d-4de5-a0ce-cc4beb12a324
Kaczmarek, Malgosia
408ec59b-8dba-41c1-89d0-af846d1bf327
Lagoudakis, Pavlos
ea50c228-f006-4edf-8459-60015d961bbf
Fedotov, Vassili
3725f5cc-2d0b-4e61-95c5-26d187c84f25
Buchnev, Oleksandr, Frank, Thomas, Cookson, Tamsin, Kaczmarek, Malgosia, Lagoudakis, Pavlos and Fedotov, Vassili
(2019)
Sensing spatial coherence of light with metamaterial surfaces.
SPIE Optics and Photonics 2019, United States, San Diego, United States.
11 - 15 Aug 2019.
(doi:10.1117/12.2529557).
Record type:
Conference or Workshop Item
(Paper)
Abstract
We report on a discovery that homogeneous metallic non-diffracting metasurfaces of a certain type allow robust speckle-free discrimination between different degrees of the spatial coherence of light. The effect has no direct analogue in natural materials and has been previously unseen in metamaterials (and metasurfaces in particular). It results in a qualitative change of the optical response of metasurfaces, whereby their transmission (and reflection) spectra acquires different spectral components, depending on whether the nano-structures are illuminated with spatially coherent or incoherent light. This effect is robust and exceptionally strong (e.g., the resulting absolute change in transmission exceeds 50%), which makes it immediately suitable for practical applications, such as optical metrology, imaging and communications. Among the metasurfaces that have been found to exhibit the new effect are planar metamaterials featuring a continuous periodic zigzag pattern. The reported samples were designed to operate in the near-IR part of the spectrum and composed of arrays of continuous zigzag nano-wires, as well as their inversion, i.e., continuous zigzag nano-slits, covering the area of ~20x20µm2. The measured data suggest that these apparently trivial metasurfaces, while non-diffracting, can indeed behave differently under spatially incoherent and coherent illumination. The systematic experimental investigation and rigorous theoretical analysis of this phenomenon (the results of which will be presented at the conference) reveal that the effect is underpinned by strongly non-local response of the metasurfaces. Its mechanism involves interference of light scattered via non-dispersive delocalised plasmon modes uniquely supported by the fabric of the metasurfaces.
Text
SPIE ZZ_Buchnev
- Accepted Manuscript
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Published date: August 2019
Venue - Dates:
SPIE Optics and Photonics 2019, United States, San Diego, United States, 2019-08-11 - 2019-08-15
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 433621
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/433621
PURE UUID: a803af43-1766-4396-8f79-fa639d27dab3
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Date deposited: 28 Aug 2019 16:30
Last modified: 16 Mar 2024 04:25
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Contributors
Author:
Oleksandr Buchnev
Author:
Thomas Frank
Author:
Tamsin Cookson
Author:
Pavlos Lagoudakis
Author:
Vassili Fedotov
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