Demonstration of Equal-Intensity Beam Generation by Dielectric Metasurfaces

Summary

A protocol for the fabrication and optical characterization of dielectric metasurfaces is presented. This method can be applied to the fabrication of not only beam splitters, but also of general dielectric metasurfaces, such as lenses, holograms, and optical cloaks.

Abstract

The fabrication and characterization protocol for a metasurface beam splitter, enabling equal-intensity beam generation, is demonstrated. Hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) is deposited on the fused silica substrate, using plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD). Typical amorphous silicon deposited by evaporation causes severe optical loss, impinging the operation at visible frequencies. Hydrogen atoms inside the amorphous silicon thin film can reduce the structural defects, improving optical loss. Nanostructures of a few hundreds of nanometers are required for the operation of metasurfaces in the visible frequencies. Conventional photolithography or direct laser writing is not feasible when fabricating such small structures, due to the diffraction limit. Hence, electron beam lithography (EBL) is utilized to define a chromium (Cr) mask on the thin film. During this process, the exposed resist is developed at a cold temperature to slow down the chemical reaction and make the pattern edges sharper. Finally, a-Si:H is etched along the mask, using inductively coupled plasma–reactive ion etching (ICP-RIE). The demonstrated method is not feasible for large-scale fabrication due to the low throughput of EBL, but it can be improved upon by combining it with nanoimprint lithography. The fabricated device is characterized by a customized optical setup consisting of a laser, polarizer, lens, power meter, and charge-coupled device (CCD). By changing the laser wavelength and polarization, the diffraction properties are measured. The measured diffracted beam powers are always equal, regardless of the incident polarization, as well as wavelength.

Introduction

Metasurfaces consisting of two-dimensional subwavelength antenna arrays have demonstrated many promising optical functionalities, such as achromatic lenses^1,2, holograms^3,4,5,6, and optical cloaks⁷. Conventional bulky optical components can be replaced with ultrathin metasurfaces while maintaining the original functionalities. For example, a beam splitter is an optical device used to separate an incident beam into two beams. Typical beam splitters are made by ....

Protocol

1. Fabrication of the dielectric metasurface

1. Precleaning of a fused silica substrate
   1. Prepare a double-side polished, fused silica substrate (length: 2 cm; width: 2 cm; thickness: 500 μm).
   2. Immerse the fused silica substrate in 50 mL of acetone and conduct the sonication process for 5 min at 40 kHz.
   3. Immerse the substrate in 50 mL of 2-propanol (IPA) and conduct the sonication process for 5 min at 40 kHz.
   4. Rinse the substrate with the IPA and blow nitrogen (N₂) gas to dry the substrate before the evaporation of the IPA.
2. Deposition of a-Si:H by PECVD

Results

The measurement results show the polarization-independent functionality of the device presented here (Figure 1). Measured beam powers of diffraction orders of m = ± 1 are equal regardless of the incident polarization state (i.e., RCP, LCP, and linear polarization). Since any arbitrary polarization states can be decomposed by the linear combination of RCP and LCP, the device’s functionality can be maintained, regardless of polarization states. The diffraction angles are 24° an.......

Discussion

Some fabrication steps should be conducted carefully, to generate a metasurface that is the same as the original design. In the resist development process, a low-temperature solution is usually preferred. The standard condition is room temperature, but the reaction speed can be slowed down by decreasing the solution temperature to 0 °C. Although the corresponding reaction time becomes longer, a finer pattern can be obtained than with standard conditions. The reaction time control is also easy owing to the low reacti.......

Materials

Name	Company	Catalog Number	Comments
Plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition	BMR Technology	HiDep-SC
Electron beam lithography	Elionix	ELS-7800
E-beam evaporation system	Korea Vacuum Tech	KVE-E4000
Inductively-coupled plasma reactive ion etching	DMS	-
Ultrasonic cleaner	Honda	W-113
E-beam resist	MICROCHEM	495 PMMA A2
Resist developer	MICROCHEM	MIBK:IPA=1:3
Conducting polymer	Showa denko	E-spacer
Chromium etchant	KMG	CR-7
Acetone	J.T. Baker	925402
2-propanol	J.T. Baker	909502
Chromium evaporation source	Kurt J. Lesker	EVMCR35D
Collimated laser diode module	Thorlabs	CPS-635	wavelength: 635 nm
ND:YAG laser	GAM laser	GAM-2000	wavelength: 532 nm
power meter	Thorlabs	S120VC
CCD Camera	INFINITY	infinity2-2M
ND filter	Thorlabs	NCD-50C-4-A
Linear polarizer	Thorlabs	LPVISA100-MP2
Lens	Thorlabs	LB1676
Iris	Thorlabs	ID25
Circular polarizer	Edmund optics	88-096
sample holder	Thorlabs	XYFM1
PECVD software	BMR Technology	HIDEP