Broadband generation of perfect Poincare beams via dielectric spin-multiplexed metasurface

The term Poincare beam, which describes the space-variant polarization of a light beam carrying spin angular momentum (SAM) and orbital angular momentum (OAM), plays an important role in various optical applications. Since the radius of a Poincare beam conventionally depends on the topological charge number, it is difficult to generate a stable and high-quality Poincare beam by two optical vortices with different topological charge numbers, as the Poincare beam formed in this way collapses upon propagation. Here, based on an all-dielectric metasurface platform, we experimentally demonstrate broadband generation of a generalized perfect Poincare beam (PPB), whose radius is independent of the topological charge number. By utilizing a phase-only modulation approach, a single-layer spin-multiplexed metasurface is shown to achieve all the states of PPBs on the hybrid-order Poincare Sphere for visible light. Furthermore, as a proof-of-concept demonstration, a metasurface encoding multidimensional SAM and OAM states in the parallel channels of elliptical and circular PPBs is implemented for optical information encryption. We envision that this work will provide a compact and efficient platform for generation of PPBs for visible light, and may promote their applications in optical communications, information encryption, optical data storage and quantum information sciences. Well-controlled Poincare beams are potentially useful in optical communications applications. Here, the authors present phase-only metasurfaces that generate broadband, perfect Poincare beams in the visible, with radius independent of the topological number.

Automated summary

The authors successfully demonstrate the generation of a generalized perfect Poincare beam with a wide spectrum using an all-dielectric metasurface platform, where the beam radius is independent of the topological charge number. This approach opens up new possibilities for optical information encryption.