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Highly efficient vortex generation at the nanoscale

Nature Nanotechnology (2024)Cite this article

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Abstract

Control of the angular momentum of light at the nanoscale is critical for many applications of subwavelength photonics, such as high-capacity optical communications devices, super-resolution imaging and optical trapping. However, conventional approaches to generate optical vortices suffer from either low efficiency or relatively large device footprints. Here we show a new strategy for vortex generation at the nanoscale that surpasses single-pixel phase control. We reveal that interaction between neighbouring nanopillars of a meta-quadrumer can tailor both the intensity and phase of the transmitted light. Consequently, a subwavelength nanopillar quadrumer is sufficient to cover a 2lπ phase change, thus efficiently converting incident light into high-purity optical vortices with different topological charges l. Benefiting from the nanoscale footprint of the meta-quadrumers, we demonstrate high-density vortex beam arrays and high-dimensional information encryption, bringing a new degree of freedom to many designs of meta-devices.

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Fig. 1: Concept of nanoscale vortex generator.
Fig. 2: Generation of optical vortices with l = 1.
Fig. 3: Generation of optical vortices with l = 2.
Fig. 4: Generation of dense vortex lattices.

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Data availability

Source data are provided with this paper. All other data are available from the corresponding authors upon reasonable request.

Code availability

The code used to generate the inverse design in the main text is available on request from the corresponding authors.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge W. Sha from Zhejiang University for helpful discussions on topology optimization. This research was supported by the National Key Research and Development Project of China (grant nos 2023YFB2806700, 2021YFA1400802 and 2022YFA1404700); the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant nos 6233000076, 12334016, 12025402, 62125501, 11934012, 12261131500 and 92250302); the Shenzhen Fundamental Research Project (JCYJ20210324120402006, JCYJ20220818102218040 and GXWD20220817145518001); the Fundamental Research Funds for Central Universities (grant nos 2022FRRK030004, 2023FRFK03049 and HIT.BRET.2021009); and the Australian Research Council (grant no. DP210101292). G.Q. acknowledges financial support by the China National Postdoctoral Program for Innovative Talents (no. BX20230164) and China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (no. 2023M731828).

Author information

Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Qinmiao Chen, Geyang Qu, Jun Yin.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ministry of Industry and Information Technology Key Lab of Micro-Nano Optoelectronic Information System, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Semiconductor Optoelectronic Materials and Intelligent Photonic Systems, Harbin Institute of Technology, Shenzhen, P. R. China

    Qinmiao Chen, Jun Yin, Yuhan Wang, Ziheng Ji, Wenhong Yang, Yujie Wang, Zhen Yin, Qinghai Song & Shumin Xiao

  2. Pengcheng Laboratory, Shenzhen, P. R. China

    Geyang Qu, Qinghai Song & Shumin Xiao

  3. Nonlinear Physics Center, Research School of Physics, Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia

    Yuri Kivshar

  4. Qingdao Innovation and Development Center, Harbin Engineering University, Qingdao, P. R. China

    Yuri Kivshar

  5. Quantum Science Center of Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macan Greater Bay Area, Shenzhen, P. R. China

    Shumin Xiao

  6. Collaborative Innovation Center of Extreme Optics, Shanxi University, Taiyuan, P. R. China

    Shumin Xiao

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  1. Qinmiao Chen
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Contributions

Q.S., Y.K. and S.X. conceived the idea and supervised the research. Q.C. and G.Q. created the design. J.Y. contributed to the theoretical analysis. Yuhan Wang, Q.C., W.Y., Yujie Wang, S.X. and Z.Y. fabricated the samples. Q.C., Z.J. and G.Q. performed the experimental measurements. S.X., Y.K. and Q.S. analysed the results. All the authors discussed the contents and prepared the paper.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Qinghai Song, Yuri Kivshar or Shumin Xiao.

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Nature Nanotechnology thanks Xiangang Luo and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work

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Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

Supplementary Figs. 1–34, Notes 1–10 and Tables 1 and 2.

Source data

Source Data Fig. 1

Source data of all phase and intensity profiles in Fig. 1. Source data of purity weights and transmissions in the simulations.

Source Data Fig. 2

Source data of purity weights and transmissions in the experiments. Source data of the line-dot plot.

Source Data Fig. 3

Source data of purity weights and transmissions in the experiments. Source data of the line-dot plot.

Source Data Fig. 4

Unprocessed images from camera and scanning electron microscopy.

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Chen, Q., Qu, G., Yin, J. et al. Highly efficient vortex generation at the nanoscale. Nat. Nanotechnol. (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41565-024-01636-y

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