Picometer-Scale Spatial Symmetry Breaking in Active Transmissive Metasurfaces

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates picometer-scale control of spatial symmetry breaking in active transmissive metasurfaces, enabling high-efficiency electro-optic modulation and beam shaping through resonance tuning.

Contribution

It introduces a silicon-on-lithium-niobate metasurface with 100 pm scale perturbations for precise resonance control and enhanced modulation efficiency.

Findings

Achieved diffraction efficiencies up to 3% via electro-optic beam splitting.

Enhanced amplitude modulation depth to 40% with 100 pm passive resonance detuning.

Demonstrated six-fold increase in modulation efficiency through symmetry breaking.

Abstract

Active transmissive metasurfaces are central building blocks for future compact, cascadable optical systems, enabling the stacking of multiple functional layers for advanced dynamic beam shaping, photonic neural networks, depth sensing, and holography. We present a transmissive electro-optic metasurface based on silicon-on-lithium-niobate, where an array of silicon waveguides with periodic perturbations, individually controlled at the 100 pm scale, supports well-defined high-Q (>2000) guided-mode resonances (GMRs). We incorporate interdigitated push-pull electrodes between subwavelength-spaced GMR elements to locally tune the refractive index in the lithium niobate substrate, thereby shifting the GMR resonance and enabling opposite phase and amplitude modulation between neighboring radiative elements. In a geometrically symmetric metasurface, this effect introduces electro-optic beam splitting via diffraction, with diffraction efficiencies as high as 3%. By introducing controlled passive resonance detuning via 100 pm scale perturbation shifts, we increase the efficiency of amplitude modulation six-fold through geometrical symmetry breaking, achieving amplitude modulation depths of 40% at $\pm$30 V. This work demonstrates the potential of active and passive resonance control enabled by high-Q GMR structures for efficient electro-optic modulation or multifunctional sensing.