Liquid-crystal metasurfaces: Self-assembly for versatile optical functionality

Liquid crystals subjected to modulated surface alignment assemble into metasurface-type structures capable of various flat-optical functionalities, including light diffraction and focusing, deflection and splitting. Remaining in a fluid phase, they are susceptible to external stimuli, and, in particular, can be efficiently controled by low voltages. We overview the existing approaches to the design and fabrication of liquid-crystal metasurfaces, highlight their realized optical functions and discuss the applied potential in emerging photonic devices.

Fourier-component engineering to control light diffraction beyond subwavelength limit

Resonant physical phenomena in planar photonic lattices, such as bound states in the continuum (BICs) and Fano resonances with 100% diffraction efficiency, have garnered significant scientific interest in recent years owing to their great ability to manipulate electromagnetic waves. In conventional diffraction theory, a subwavelength period is considered a prerequisite to achieving the highly efficient resonant physical phenomena. Indeed, most of the previous studies, that treat anomalous resonance effects, utilize quasiguided Bloch modes at the second stop bands open in the subwavelength region. Higher (beyond the second) stop bands open beyond the subwavelength limit have attracted little attention thus far. In principle, resonant diffraction phenomena are governed by the superposition of scattering processes, owing to higher Fourier harmonic components of periodic modulations in lattice parameters. But only some of Fourier components are dominant at band edges with Bragg conditions. Here, we present new principles of light diffraction, that enable identification of the dominant Fourier components causing multiple diffraction orders at the higher stopbands, and show that unwanted diffraction orders can be suppressed by engineering the dominant Fourier components. Based on the new diffraction principles, novel Fourier-component-engineered (FCE) metasurfaces are introduced and analyzed. It is demonstrated that these FCE metasurfaces with appropriately engineered spatial dielectric functions can exhibit BICs and highly efficient Fano resonances even beyond the subwavelength limit.

On-chip light diffraction imaging of nano structures in the guanine platelet

Light projection over short distances can minimize the size of photonic devices, e.g., head-mounted displays and lens-free microscopes. Small lenses or light condensers without typical lenses are essential for light control in micron-scale spaces. In this work, micro-platelets floating in water are used for light projection near the image sensor. These platelets, which are made from guanine, have nanohole gratings and demonstrate light diffraction toward specific directions. By setting a thin water layer on the image sensor's cover glass, each platelet in water forms column- or bar-code-shaped images on the screen. The projected image shapes and colors are inferred to contain information about nano-structures present in the guanine platelet. The proposed down-sized imaging technique can realize extremely compact and portable imagers for nanoscale object detection.

Wavelength scaling of electron collision time in plasma for strong field laser-matter interactions in solids

Although the dielectric constant of plasma depends on electron collision time as well as wavelength and plasma density, experimental studies on the electron collision time and its effects on laser-matter interactions are lacking. Here, we report an anomalous regime of laser-matter interactions generated by wavelength dependence (1.2–2.3 µm) of the electron collision time in plasma for laser filamentation in solids. Our experiments using time-resolved interferometry reveal that electron collision times are small (<1 femtosecond) and decrease as the driver wavelength increases, which creates a previously-unobserved regime of light defocusing in plasma: longer wavelengths have less plasma defocusing. This anomalous plasma defocusing is counterbalanced by light diffraction which is greater at longer wavelengths, resulting in almost constant plasma densities with wavelength. Our wavelength-scaled study suggests that both the plasma density and electron collision time should be systematically investigated for a better understanding of strong field laser-matter interactions in solids.

Deep-Learning-Based Halo-Free White-Light Diffraction Phase Imaging

In white-light diffraction phase imaging, when used with insufficient spatial filtering, phase image exhibits object-dependent artifacts, especially around the edges of the object, referred to the well-known halo effect. Here we present a new deep-learning-based approach for recovering halo-free white-light diffraction phase images. The neural network-based method can accurately and rapidly remove the halo artifacts not relying on any priori knowledge. First, the neural network, namely HFDNN (deep neural network for halo free), is designed. Then, the HFDNN is trained by using pairs of the measured phase images, acquired by white-light diffraction phase imaging system, and the true phase images. After the training, the HFDNN takes a measured phase image as input to rapidly correct the halo artifacts and reconstruct an accurate halo-free phase image. We validate the effectiveness and the robustness of the method by correcting the phase images on various samples, including standard polystyrene beads, living red blood cells and monascus spores and hyphaes. In contrast to the existing halo-free methods, the proposed HFDNN method does not rely on the hardware design or does not need iterative computations, providing a new avenue to all halo-free white-light phase imaging techniques.