Dynamic polarization-regulated metasurface with variable focal length

Abstract

Polarization and focal length are both critical optical parameters with many applications in many fields, such as optical communications and imaging. The development of metasurfaces provides a new realization of optical systems. In this paper, based on metasurfaces’ powerful electromagnetic modulation capability, we integrate polarization conversion with continuous zoom function and propose a dynamic polarization-regulated metasurface with variable focal length. It realizes the reversible conversion of polarization state, which can convert linearly polarized light into elliptically polarized light and circularly polarized light and convert circularly polarized light to linearly polarized light. At the same time, it achieves a 4.4× zoom range, with a constant focal length variation from 70 µm to 309 µm. The metasurface has the advantages of small size, easy integration, and reconfigurability, providing a new design idea for complex functional optical systems.