Geometric metasurface fork gratings for vortex‐beam generation and manipulation

In recent years, optical vortex beams possessing orbital angular momentum have caught much attention due to their potential for high capacity optical communications. This capability arises from the unbounded topological charges of orbital angular momentum (OAM) that provides infinite freedoms for encoding information. The two most common approaches for generating vortex beams are through fork diffraction gratings and spiral phase plates. While realization of conventional spiral phase plate requires complicated 3D fabrication, the emerging field of metasurfaces has provided a planar and facile solution for generating vortex beams of arbitrary orbit angular momentum. Here we realize a novel type of geometric metasurface fork grating that seamlessly combine the functionality of a metasurface phase plate for vortex beam generation, and that of a linear phase gradient metasurface for controlling the wave propagation direction. The metasurface fork grating is therefore capable of simultaneously controlling both the spin and the orbital angular momentum of light.