Complex wavefront engineering with disorder-engineered metasurfaces

TL;DR

This paper introduces a disorder-engineered metasurface that enables complex wavefront control with a known transmission matrix, simplifying implementation and enhancing capabilities like aberration-free focusing and extended optical memory effects.

Contribution

The work presents a novel approach to wavefront engineering by designing disorder with known characteristics, allowing for efficient control without exhaustive measurements.

Findings

Achieved a large optical memory effect range.

Demonstrated high stability of the metasurface.

Tailored angular scattering profiles for specific applications.

Abstract

Recently, complex wavefront engineering with disordered media has demonstrated optical manipulation capabilities beyond those of conventional optics. These capabilities include extended volume, aberration-free focusing and subwavelength focusing via evanescent mode coupling. However, translating these capabilities to useful applications has remained challenging as the input-output characteristics of the disordered media ($P$ variables) need to be exhaustively determined via $O(P)$ measurements. Here, we propose a paradigm shift where the disorder is specifically designed so that its exact characteristics are known, resulting in an a priori determined transmission matrix that can be utilized with only a few alignment steps. We implement this concept with a disorder-engineered metasurface, which exhibits additional unique features for complex wavefront engineering such as an unprecedented optical memory effect range, excellent stability, and a tailorable angular scattering profile.