Reflective Metasurfaces for Incoherent Light To Bring Computer Graphics Tricks to Optical Systems

Abstract

The normal mapping technique is widely used in computer graphics to visualize three-dimensional (3D) objects displayed on a flat screen. Taking advantage of optical properties of metasurfaces, which provide a highly efficient approach for manipulation of incident light wavefront, we have designed a metasurface to implement diffuse reflection and used the concept of normal mapping to control its scattering properties. As a proof of principle, we have fabricated and characterized a flat diffuse metasurface imitating lighting and shading effects of a 3D cube. The 3D image is displayed directly on the illuminated metasurface and it is brighter than a standard white paper by up to 2.4 times. The designed structure performs equally well under coherent and incoherent illumination. The normal mapping approach based on metasurfaces can complement traditional optical engineering methods of surface profiling and gradient refractive index engineering in the design of 3D security features, high-performance planar optical diffusers, novel optical elements, and displays.

High-Resolution Quantitative Phase Imaging of Plasmonic Metasurfaces with Sensitivity down to a Single Nanoantenna

“…Setting the nanoantenna angle to ϕ causes a local change in the geometric phase of 2ϕ. 48 The phase is altered by the change of handedness of the circular polarization, in which LHCP of driving light is transformed to RHCP of scattered light. The benchmark sample used in the measurement is composed of 19 square areas with the size of (1010) µm 2 .…”

Self‐Assembled Plasmonic Coaxial Nanocavities for High‐Definition Broad‐Angle Coloring in Reflection and Transmission

“…[ 10 ] Utilizing the combined action of specular and diffused reflections, the capabilities of nanostructured plasmonic surfaces were further extended to introduce 3D effects. [ 9a,11 ] Engineering the phase of the reflected or transmitted light opens up the possibilities for its spatial control and the realization of flat lenses, deflectors, or holograms. [ 12 ]…”

Dielectric Resonance-Based Optical Metasurfaces: From Fundamentals to Applications

“…For example, the intrinsic thermal loss in metallic nanostructures often limits the working efficiency of metasurfaces ( Karimi et al., 2014 ; Luo et al., 2015 ; Yu et al., 2012 ). High-efficiency metallic metasurface designs usually require more complex designs such as layered structures, taking advantage of the high Q factor of Fabry-Pérot resonances ( Grady et al., 2013 ; Liu et al., 2015a ; Minovich et al., 2017 ; Roth et al., 2020 ). On the other hand, metallic components are challenging to simultaneously support electric and magnetic resonances within a single nanostructure.…”