Optical metasurfaces can unprecedently regulate versatile wavefronts at the subwavelength scale. Most well-established optical metasurfaces are, however, static and feature well-defined optical responses that are determined by optical metasurface configurations set during their development. The dynamic configurations of the materials investigated so far often show specific limitations and reduced reconfigurability. In a new report now published on Science Advances, Chao Meng and a research team in nanotechnology, nano-optics, and electronics in Denmark, Norway and China, combined a thin-film piezoelectric micromechanical system (MEMS) with a gap-surface plasmon-based optical metasurface (OMS). Using the setup, they developed an electrically driven, dynamic microelectromechanical system-optical metasurface platform to regulate phases alongside amplitude modulations of the reflected light by finely actuating the MEMS mirror. Using this platform, they showed how the components afforded polarization-independent beam steering and two-dimensional focusing with high modulation efficiencies and fast responses. The platform offers flexible solutions to realize complex dynamics of 2D wavefront regulations with applications in reconfigurable and adaptive optical networks and systems.
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Source: Phys.org