As optical metasurfaces become progressively ubiquitous, the expectations from them are becoming increasingly complex. The limited number of structural parameters in the conventional metasurface building blocks, and existing phase engineering rules do not completely support the growth rate of metasurface applications. In this paper, we present digitized-binary elements, as alternative high-dimensional building blocks, to accommodate the needs of complex-tailorable-multifunctional applications. To design these complicated platforms, we demonstrate adaptive genetic algorithm (AGA), as a powerful evolutionary optimizer, capable of handling such demanding design expectations. We solve four complex problems of high current interest to the optics community, namely, a binary-pattern plasmonic reflectarray with high tolerance to fabrication imperfections and high reflection efficiency for beam-steering purposes, a dual-beam aperiodic leaky-wave antenna, which diffracts TE and TM excitation waveguides modes to arbitrarily chosen directions, a compact birefringent all-dielectric metasurface with finer pixel resolution compared to canonical nano-antennas, and a visible-transparent infrared emitting/absorbing metasurface that shows high promise for solar-cell cooling applications, to showcase the advantages of the combination of binary-pattern metasurfaces and the AGA technique. Each of these novel applications encounters computational and fabrication challenges under conventional design methods, and is chosen carefully to highlight one of the unique advantages of the AGA technique. Finally, we show that large surplus datasets produced as by-products of the evolutionary optimizers can be employed as ingredients of the new-age computational algorithms, such as, machine learning and deep leaning. In doing so, we open a new gateway of predicting the solution to a problem in the fastest possible way based on statistical analysis of the datasets rather than researching the whole solution space.

Modulation of metasurfaces in time gives rise to several exotic space-time scattering phenomena by breaking the reciprocity constraint and generation of higher-order frequency harmonics. We introduce a new design paradigm for time-modulated metasurfaces, enabling tunable engineering of the generated frequency harmonics and their emerging wavefronts by electrically controlling the phase delay in modulation. It is demonstrated that the light acquires a dispersionless phase shift regardless of incident angle and polarization, upon undergoing frequency conversion in a timemodulated metasurface which is linearly proportional to the modulation phase delay and the order of generated frequency harmonic. The conversion efficiency to the frequency harmonics is independent of modulation phase delay and only depends on the modulation depth and resonant characteristics of the metasurface, with the highest efficiency occurring in the vicinity of resonance, and decreasing away from the resonant regime. The modulation-induced phase shift allows for creating tunable spatially varying phase discontinuities with 2π span in the wavefronts of generated frequency harmonics for a wide range of frequencies and incident angles. Specifically, we apply this approach to a time-modulated metasurface in the Teraherz regime consisted of graphene-wrapped silicon microwires. For this purpose, we use an accurate and efficient semi-analytical framework based on multipole scattering. We demonstrate the utility of the design rule for tunable beam steering and focusing of generated frequency harmonics giving rise to several intriguing effects such as spatial decomposition of harmonics, anomalous bending with full coverage of angles and dual-polarity lensing. Furthermore, we investigate the angular and spectral performance of the time-modulated metasurface in manipulation of generated frequency harmonics to verify its constant phase response versus incident wavelength and angle. The nonreciprocal response of the metasurface in wavefront engineering is also studied by establishing nonreciprocal links with large isolations via modulationinduced phase shift. The proposed design approach enables a new class of high-efficiency tunable metasurfaces with wide angular and frequency bandwidth, wavefront engineering capabilities, nonreciprocal response and multi-functionality.

Metasurfaces are ideal candidates for conformal wave manipulation on curved objects due to their low profiles and rich functionalities. Here we design and analyze conformal metasurfaces for practical optical applications at 532 nm visible band for the first time. The inclusions are silicon disk nanoantennas embedded in a flexible supporting layer of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS). They behave as local phase controllers in subwavelength dimensions for successful modification of electromagnetic responses point by point, with merits of high efficiency, at visible regime, ultrathin films, good tolerance to the incidence angle and the grid stretching due to the curvy substrate. An efficient modeling technique based on field equivalence principle is systematically proposed for characterizing metasurfaces with huge arrays of nanoantennas oriented in a conformal manner. Utilizing the robust nanoantenna inclusions and benefiting from the powerful analyzing tool, we successfully demonstrate the superior performances of the conformal metasurfaces in two specific areas, with one for lensing and compensation of spherical aberration, and the other carpet cloak, both at 532 nm visible spectrum.

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Interference of transmitted and received signals hinders the simultaneous functionality of a conventional optical antenna as a transmitter and receiver which is required for full-duplex communication. The full-duplex communication schemes enabled by dense wavelength division multiplexed optical networks require distinct transmitter/receiver components operating at different wavelengths which increase the cost, complexity and footprint of physical layer. In this work, we demonstrate that an array of nanoantennas with leaky-wave architecture based on spatiotemporal modulation establishes nonreciprocal optical links which can reject the interference of transmitted and received signals by isolating the frequency of transmission and reception modes. For this purpose, we integrate indium-tin-oxide into plasmonic nanodipoles which allows for realization of time-modulated nanoantennas in near-infrared frequency regime through electrical modulation of charge carrier density with radio-frequency signals. The radiation characteristics of individual nanoantennas and modal properties of nanoantenna arrays are rigorously studied through linking of charge transport and electromagnetic models. To this end, we extend the formulation of discrete dipole approximation as the standard modeling tool for electromagnetic scattering from nanoantenna arrays to treat realistic time-modulated structures with drastically different time-scales between optical and modulation frequencies. The operation of spatiotemporally modulated array antennas in transmission and reception modes is investigated. Moreover, electrical beam-scanning functionality and dependence of antenna characteristics to modulation parameters and wavelength are demonstrated. It is rigorously established that such array antennas can operate as full transceivers by separating the transmitted and received signals propagating along the same direction through down-conversion and up-conversion of the frequency. Our results provide a route toward realization of optical antenna systems capable of full-duplex communication and real-time beam-scanning which can increase the capacity and decrease the complexity of optical networks.

A leaky-wave antenna is proposed that furnishes two-dimensional (2-D) beam scanning in both elevation and azimuth planes via electrical control in real time, and at a single frequency. The structure consists of a graphene sheet on a metal-backed substrate. The 2-D beam-scanning performance is achieved through the proper biasing configuration of graphene. Traditional pixel-by-pixel electrical control makes the biasing network a huge challenge for chip-scale designs in the terahertz regime and beyond. The method presented here enables dynamic control by applying two groups of one-dimensional biasing on the sides of the sheet. They are orthogonal and decoupled, with one group offering monotonic impedance variation along one direction, and the other sinusoidal impedance modulation along the other direction. The conductivity profile of the graphene sheet for a certain radiation angle, realized by applying proper voltage to each pad underneath the sheet, is determined by a holographic technique and can be reconfigured electronically and desirably. Such innovative biasing design makes real-time control of the beam direction and beamwidth simple and highly integrated. The concept is not limited to graphene-based structures, and can be generalized to any available gate-tunable material system.

Metafabrics are textiles with engineered constituent elements, possessing peculiar properties, which cannot be achieved with conventional fabrics. Fabric structures are formed of fibers bundled up and twisted into yarns. Yarns are then intertwined or bond closely together to shape the fabric structure. Engineering the textiles can be performed by utilizing novel materials for constitutive fibers and also manipulating the size and structure of fibers and yarns. In this paper, we employ a powerful and realistic model to design and investigate metafabrics for unique applications in personal thermal cooling, thermal insulation, and thermoregualation by means of engineering fabric building blocks. We provide physical insights into the behavior of the so-called infrared-transparent visible-opaque fabrics (ITVOFs), study the effect of using metallic-coated fibers on the thermal insulation functionality of a breathable textile, and also propose an alternative form for phase-change fabrics (PCFs) consisting of core–shell fibers with phase-change material (PCM) cores. Also, we develop a robust design principle to transform fabrics into fully functional devices, guiding, and manipulating thermal radiation through graded yarns with core–shell fibers. In particular, a focusing metafabric is designed to concentrate the thermal radiation into localized high energy spots. We integrate this focusing device into a multilayer technical platform to harvest the thermal energy from human body through effectively coupling the thermal radiation into a layer of IR-detector material. A considerable enhancement ratio of 7.46 is achieved in the current density generation through the metafabric.