Metasurfaces are engineered interfaces that contain a thin layer of plasmonic or dielectric nanostructures capable of manipulating light in a desirable manner. Advances in metasurfaces have led to various practical applications ranging from lensing to holography. Metasurface holograms that can be switched by the polarization state of incident light have been demonstrated for achieving polarization multiplexed functionalities. However, practical application of these devices has been limited by their capability for achieving high efficiency and high image quality. Here we experimentally demonstrate a helicity multiplexed metasurface hologram with high efficiency and good image fidelity over a broad range of frequencies. The metasurface hologram features the combination of two sets of hologram patterns operating with opposite incident helicities. Two symmetrically distributed off-axis images are interchangeable by controlling the helicity of the input light. The demonstrated helicity multiplexed metasurface hologram with its high performance opens avenues for future applications with functionality switchable optical devices.

Despite a plethora of applications ranging from quantum memories to high-resolution lithography, the current technologies to generate vector vortex beams (VVBs) suffer from less efficient energy use, poor resolution, low damage threshold, and bulky size, preventing further practical applications. We propose and experimentally demonstrate an approach to generate VVBs with a single metasurface by locally tailoring phase and transverse polarization distribution. This method features the spin–orbit coupling and the superposition of the converted part with an additional phase pickup and the residual part without a phase change. By maintaining the equal components for the converted part and the residual part, the cylindrically polarized vortex beams carrying orbital angular momentum are experimentally demonstrated based on a single metasurface at subwavelength scale. The proposed approach provides unprecedented freedom in engineering the properties of optical waves with high-efficiency light utilization and a minimal footprint.

The focusing performance of a 40 nm-thick metasurface lens is experimentally demonstrated. The longitudinal multifoci flat metasurface lens is illuminated with a linearly polarized light (|LP>) beam at normal incidence. Three focal planes with circular polarization states (|L> and |R>) are observed. The theoretical intensity profile of the light behind the metalens in the y–z plane agrees well with theoretical predictions.

Images perceived by human eyes or recorded by cameras are usually optical patterns with spatially varying intensity or color profiles. In addition to the intensity and color, the information of an image can be encoded in a spatially varying distribution of phase or polarization state. Interestingly, such images might not be able to be directly viewed by human eyes or cameras because they may exhibit highly uniform intensity profiles. Here, we propose and experimentally demonstrate an approach to hide a high-resolution grayscale image in a square laser beam with a size of less than half a millimeter. An image with a pixel size of 300 × 300 nm is encoded into the spatially variant polarization states of the laser beam, which can be revealed after passing through a linear polarizer. This unique technology for hiding grayscale images and polarization manipulation provides new opportunities for various applications, including encryption, imaging, optical communications, quantum science and fundamental physics.

The miniaturization of measurement systems currently used to characterize the polarization state of light is limited by the bulky optical components used such as polarizers and waveplates. We propose and experimentally demonstrate a simple and compact approach to measure the ellipticity and handedness of the polarized light using an ultrathin (40 nm) gradient metasurface. A completely polarized light beam is decomposed into a left circularly polarized beam and a right circularly polarized beam, which are steered in two directions by the metasurface consisting of nanorods with spatially varying orientations. By measuring the intensities of the refracted light spots, the ellipticity and handedness of various incident polarization states are characterized at a range of wavelengths and used to determine the polarization information of the incident beam. To fully characterize the polarization state of light, an extra polarizer can be used to measure the polarization azimuth angle of the incident light.