Broadband and high efficiency terahertz metasurfaces for anomalous refraction and vortex beam generation

Abstract

The applications of metasurfaces are currently a highly active research field due to their extraordinary ability to manipulate electromagnetic waves. The ultra-thin characteristics of metasurfaces allow the miniaturization and integration of metasurface devices. However, these devices work typically under a low efficiency and narrow bandwidth condition. In this work, we design eight multilayered unit cells with similar amplitudes and a phase interval of π/4, which convert the polarization states of the terahertz (THz) waves between two orthogonal directions. The average cross-polarized transmission amplitudes of these cells are all around 0.9 in an ultra-broad frequency range from 0.5 THz to 1.4 THz. Furthermore, unit cells are used to construct both an ultra-thin anomalous refraction metalens and a vortex phase plate. Our simulation results show that the anomalous refraction for the transmitted linear polarization component is comparable to the theoretical prediction, and the maximum error is determined to be below 4.8%. The vortex phase plate can also generate an ideal terahertz vortex beam with a mode purity of 90% and more. The distributions of longitudinal electric field, intensity, and phase illustrate that the generated vortex beam has excellent propagation characteristics and a weak divergence. Simulations of the two types of metasurface devices, based on the eight unit cells, exhibit very high efficiencies in a wide bandwidth. Our research will assist in the improvement in the practical applications of metasurfaces. It also provides a reference for the design of high efficiency and broadband devices that are applied to other frequency ranges.