Generating vectorial optical fields via surface-wave-excited complex-amplitude metasurfaces

Xiangyu Jin; Yu He; Jianru Li; Xiaoya Nie; Shuai Du; Yufei Song; Haoyu Luo; Muhan Liu; Shaojie Ma; Qiong He; Lei Zhou; Zhuo Wang; Shulin Sun

doi:10.1038/s41377-026-02334-1

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Generating vectorial optical fields via surface-wave-excited complex-amplitude metasurfaces

Original Articles

- Generating vectorial optical fields via surface-wave-excited complex-amplitude metasurfaces
- Light: Science & Applications Vol. 15, Issue 8, Pages: 2806-2817(2026)
- Affiliations：
  
  1.Shanghai Engineering Research Centre of Ultra Precisio Optical Manufacturing, Department of Optical Science and Engineering, College of Future Information Technology, Fudan University, Shanghai, China
  2.State Key Laboratory of Surface Physics, Key Laboratory of Micro and Nano Photonic Structures (Ministry of Education) and Department of Physics, Fudan University, Shanghai, China
  3.Shanghai Key Laboratory of Metasurfaces for Light Manipulation, Shanghai, China
  4.Shanghai Frontiers Science Research Base of Intelligent Optoelectronics and Perception, Institute of Optoelectronics, Fudan University, Shanghai, China
- Author bio：
  
  Lei Zhou (phzhou@fudan.edu.cn)
  Zhuo Wang (zhuowang15@fudan.edu.cn)
  Shulin Sun (sls@fudan.edu.cn)
- Funds：
- DOI：10.1038/s41377-026-02334-1
  CLC：
- Received：30 November 2025，
  
  Revised：2026-03-25，
  
  Accepted：27 April 2026，
  
  Online First：27 May 2026，
  
  Published：31 August 2026
- Accepted：
Scan QR Code
Jin, X. Y. et al. Generating vectorial optical fields via surface-wave-excited complex-amplitude metasurfaces. Light: Science & Applications, 15, 2806-2817 (2026).
DOI：

Jin, X. Y. et al. Generating vectorial optical fields via surface-wave-excited complex-amplitude metasurfaces. Light: Science & Applications, 15, 2806-2817 (2026). DOI： 10.1038/s41377-026-02334-1.

摘要

Abstract

On-chip photonic systems capable of efficiently generating pre-designed vectorial optical fields (VOFs) are highly desired in integrated photonics

but traditional devices are bulky and lack flexible control capabilities. Although ultra-compact metasurfaces (MSs) have exhibited powerful light-manipulation capabilities

they typically work under pr

opagating-wave excitations and/or rely on only phase modulations to control light beams. Here

a general strategy is proposed to design MSs that

under surface wave (SW) excitations

can independently control the

amplitudes

and

phases

of locally scattered waves with two orthogonal polarizations

thus enabling efficient generation of pre-designed VOFs. As a benchmark test

complex amplitude

MS was constructed to experimentally demonstrate the generation of two directional beams exhibiting orthogonal polarizations and arbitrarily pre-designed intensities

under excitation of SW at 0.4 THz. Next

another MS was experimentally demonstrated to generate two focal points in the far field with distinct intensities

under the same THz SW excitation. Finally

based on a modified Gerchberg-Saxton (GS) algorithm incorporating both amplitude and phase modulations

a series of THz SW-excited

complex amplitude

MSs were designed and fabricated

and were experimentally demonstrated to respectively generate pre-designed

scalar

and

vectorial

holographic images in the far field

exhibiting much improved qualities and flexibility than those generated by their phase-only counterparts. The present work establishes a novel on-chip platform to generate complex vectorial fields

paving the way for many applications in integrated optics such as encrypted holography

and augmented reality.

关键词

Keywords

references

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