Breaking Malus' law: Highly efficient, broadband, and angular robust asymmetric light transmitting metasurface

High efficiency, broad bandwidth, and robust angular tolerance are key considerations in photonic device design. Here, a few-layer, asymmetric light transmitting metasurface that simultaneously satisfies all the above requirements is reported. The metasurface consists of coupled metallic sheets. It has a measured transmission efficiency of 80%, extinction ratio of 13.8 dB around 1.5 mu m, and a full width half maximum bandwidth of 1.7 mu m. It is as thin as 290 nm, has good performance tolerance against the angle of incidence and constituent nano-structure geometry variations. This work demonstrates a practical asymmetric light transmission device with optimal performance for large scale manufacturing.