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Coherent control of wavefronts by planar photonic metasurfaces

Coherent control of wavefronts by planar photonic metasurfaces
Coherent control of wavefronts by planar photonic metasurfaces
The optical properties of materials can manifest differently in traveling and standing light waves. In standing waves, “coherent control” of the energy exchange between incident and scattered waves enables control of light with light without nonlinearity, at arbitrarily low intensity and on ultrashort (few optical cycle) timescales. This thesis reports on my research efforts towards application of coherent control techniques for shaping the wavefronts of light scattered by planar photonic metasurfaces: I show for the first time that the coherent control paradigm can be applied to optically thick and/or asymmetric sample/device structures, where previously only vanishingly thin (subwavelength thickness) structures were considered. I have derived the requisite illumination conditions for electric and magnetic field standing wave excitation of substrate-supported (e.g. at an air-glass substrate) meta surface structures; and numerically demonstrated applications to selective excitation spectroscopy and for thin film characterisation. I have introduced a new mechanism for active tuning of gradient index meta surfaces via coherent control of the phase gradient itself – turning what is conventionally a constant in the Generallized Snell’s law into a variable. This is demonstrated in the development of a meta surface design providing, through coherent selective excitation of Mie-type resonances in Si nano-pillars, coherently controlled beam steering (with no moving parts) over a continuous 9.1° range. I have also discussed its potential use for solid state Lidar.
University of Southampton
He, Fei
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He, Fei
0b5b12e2-82ec-407b-8e4f-a8ba024d9fb3
Fang, Xu
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MacDonald, Kevin
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He, Fei (2021) Coherent control of wavefronts by planar photonic metasurfaces. University of Southampton, Doctoral Thesis, 124pp.

Record type: Thesis (Doctoral)

Abstract

The optical properties of materials can manifest differently in traveling and standing light waves. In standing waves, “coherent control” of the energy exchange between incident and scattered waves enables control of light with light without nonlinearity, at arbitrarily low intensity and on ultrashort (few optical cycle) timescales. This thesis reports on my research efforts towards application of coherent control techniques for shaping the wavefronts of light scattered by planar photonic metasurfaces: I show for the first time that the coherent control paradigm can be applied to optically thick and/or asymmetric sample/device structures, where previously only vanishingly thin (subwavelength thickness) structures were considered. I have derived the requisite illumination conditions for electric and magnetic field standing wave excitation of substrate-supported (e.g. at an air-glass substrate) meta surface structures; and numerically demonstrated applications to selective excitation spectroscopy and for thin film characterisation. I have introduced a new mechanism for active tuning of gradient index meta surfaces via coherent control of the phase gradient itself – turning what is conventionally a constant in the Generallized Snell’s law into a variable. This is demonstrated in the development of a meta surface design providing, through coherent selective excitation of Mie-type resonances in Si nano-pillars, coherently controlled beam steering (with no moving parts) over a continuous 9.1° range. I have also discussed its potential use for solid state Lidar.

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More information

Submitted date: June 2021

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 457073
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/457073
PURE UUID: fbef4ef2-7054-47bd-814b-0a3a78081808
ORCID for Xu Fang: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0003-1735-2654
ORCID for Kevin MacDonald: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-3877-2976

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 23 May 2022 16:47
Last modified: 17 Mar 2024 03:29

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Contributors

Author: Fei He
Thesis advisor: Xu Fang ORCID iD
Thesis advisor: Kevin MacDonald ORCID iD

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