Complex refraction metasurfaces for locally enhanced propagation through opaque media

TL;DR

This paper introduces complex refraction metasurfaces that control phase and amplitude to enable non-decaying, enhanced light transmission through opaque media, revealing new non-diffracting solutions and potential for advanced optical control.

Contribution

It extends Snell's law to complex angles, enabling non-decaying transmission in opaque media via metasurfaces controlling phase and amplitude.

Findings

Discovery of non-diffracting, non-decaying solutions in opaque media.

Implementation of windowing to suppress side tails of wave solutions.

Potential for synthesizing refined beam profiles with passive metasurfaces.

Abstract

Metasurfaces with linear phase gradients can redirect light beams. We propose controlling both phase and amplitude of a metasurface to extend Snell's law to the realm of complex angles, enabling a non-decaying transmission through opaque media with complex refractive indices. This leads to the discovery of non-diffracting and non-decaying solutions to the wave equation in opaque media, in the form of generalised cosine and Bessel-beams with a complex argument. While these solutions present nonphysical exponentially growing side tails, we address this via a windowing process, removing the side tails of the field profile while preserving significant transmission enhancement through an opaque slab on a small localized region. Such refined beam profiles may be synthesized by passive metasurfaces with phase and amplitude control at the opaque material's interface. Our findings, derived from rigorous solutions of the wave equation, promise new insights and enhanced control of light propagation in opaque media.