Metasurfaces are planar optical elements that hold promise for overcoming the limitations of refractive and conventional diffractive optics. Previous metasurfaces have been limited to transparency windows at infrared wavelengths because of significant optical absorption and loss at visible wavelengths. Here we report a polarization-insensitive, high-contrast transmissive metasurface composed of crystalline titanium dioxide pillars in the form of metalens at the wavelength of 633 nm. The focal spots are as small as 0.54 ${\lambda }_d$ , which is very close to the optical diffraction limit of 0.5 ${\lambda }_d$ . The simulation focusing efficiency is up to 88.5%. A rigorous method for metalens design, the phase realization mechanism and the trade-off between high efficiency and small spot size (or large numerical aperture) are discussed. Besides, the metalenses can work well with an imaging point source up to ±15° off axis. The proposed design is relatively systematic and can be applied to various applications such as visible imaging, ranging and sensing systems.

A relative humidity sensor based on a graphene oxide-coated few-mode fiber Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) is proposed in this paper. The MZI was made by splicing a segment of the few-mode fiber (FMF) between two segments of a no-core fiber (NCF) and two segments of a single mode fiber (SMF) located outside the two NCFs. The core and cladding of the FMF acted as interferometric arms, while the NCFs acted as couplers for splitting and recombining light due to mismatch of mode field diameter. The cladding of the FMF was corroded with hydrofluoric acid, and a layer of graphene oxide (GO) film was coated on the corroded cladding of FMF via the natural deposition method. The refractive index of GO varied upon absorption the water molecules. As a result, the phase difference of the MZI varied and the wavelength of the resonant dip shifted with a change in the ambient relative humidity (RH). High humidity sensitivity of 0.191 and 0.061 nm/%RH in the RH range of 30-55% and 55-95%, respectively, were achieved experimentally. The high sensitivity, compact size, and simple manufacturing of the proposed sensor could offer attractive applications in fields of chemical sensors and biochemical detection.

Active plasmonic band-stop filters based on single- and double-layer doped graphene metamaterials at the THz wavelengths are proposed and investigated numerically by using the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method. The metamaterial unit cell structure is composed of two parallel graphene nanoscale ribbons. Simulated results exhibit that significant resonance wavelength shifts can be achieved with a slight variation of the doping concentration of the graphene ribbons. Besides, the asymmetry double-layer graphene metamaterial device has two apparent filter dips while the symmetry single-, double-layer and asymmetry single-layer graphene metamaterial devices just only one. The metamaterials with symmetry single-layer and asymmetry double-layer graphene can be used as a high-sensitivity refractive sensor with the sensitivity up to 5100 nm/RIU and a two-circuit switch, respectively. These prospects pave the way towards ultrafast active graphene-based plasmonic devices for THz applications.

Optical metasurfaces exhibit unprecedented ability in light field control due to their ability to locally change the phase, amplitude, and polarization of transmitted or reflected light. We propose a multifunctional metalens with dual working modes based on bilayer geometric phase elements consisting of low-loss phase change materials (Sb₂Se₃) and amorphous silicon (a-Si). In transmission mode, by changing the crystalline state of the Sb₂Se₃ scatterer, a bifocal metalens with an arbitrary intensity ratio at the telecommunication C-band is realized, and the total focusing efficiency of the bifocal metalens is as high as 78%. Also, at the resonance wavelength of the amorphous Sb₂Se₃ scatterer, the scatterer can be regarded as a half-wave plate in reflection mode. The multifunctional metalens can reversely converge incident light into a focal point with a focusing efficiency of up to 30%. The high focusing efficiency, dynamic reconfigurability, and dual working modes of the multifunctional metalens contribute to polarization state detection, optical imaging, and optical data storage. In addition, the bilayer geometric phase elements can be easily extended to multilayer, which significantly improves the capability of manipulating the incident light field.

Vanadium dioxide (VO₂) is a temperature phase change material that has metallic properties at high temperatures and insulation properties at room temperature. In this article, a novel device has been designed based on the dielectric metasurface consisting of VO₂ and graphene array, which can achieve multiple functions by adjusting temperature and voltage. When the temperature is high (340 K), the device is in the absorption state and its absorptivity can be dynamically controlled by changing the temperature. On the other hand, the device is in the polarization state under room temperature, and the polarization of electromagnetic waves can be dynamically controlled by adjusting the voltage of graphene. This device can achieve a broadband absorber (the maximum absorptance reaches 99.415% at wavelengths ranging from 44 THz to 52 THz) and high polarization conversion efficiency (>99.89%) in the mid-infrared range, which has great advantages over other single-function devices. Our results demonstrate that this multifunctional device may have widespread applications in emitters, sensors, spatial light modulators, IR camouflages, and can be used in thermophotovoltaics and wireless communication.