Polarization-controllable perfect vortex beam by a dielectric metasurface

A perfect vortex beam has been attracting tremendous attention due to the fact that its ring radius is independent of the topological charge. Taking advantage of the superposition principle of phase in Fourier space, we proposed to generate perfect vortex beam using propagation-phase-based dielectric metasurface, which exhibits production efficiency larger than 83.5%. Due to the sensitivity of propagation phase to the polarization of incident beam, two sets of phase profiles can be imposed on a single dielectric metasurface, enabling the simultaneous generation of dual perfect vortex beams. Based on this property, convenient control to the radius and/or topological charge of perfect vortex beam is achieved by switching the incident polarization between two orthogonal polarizations, without redesigning metasurface or changing optical path. What’s more important, the crosstalk of these two channels is low, less than 4%. Thus, the propagation-phase method of producing perfect vortex beam will find significant applications in optical communication, particle trapping, particle manipulation and holographic display.