Optical metasurfaces are two-dimensional ultrathin devices based on single-layer or multilayer arrays of subwavelength nanostructures. They can achieve precise control of phase, amplitude, and polarization on the subwavelength scale. In this paper, a substrate-free all-silicon coded grating is designed, which can realize the phase control of the outgoing beam after the y-polarized plane wave is vertically incident on the metasurface at 0.1 THz. Through a single-layer silicon nanoarray structure, a low-reflection anomalous transmission metasurface is realized, and a variety of different beam deflectors are designed based on these encoded gratings. We propose a coded grating addition principle, which adds and subtracts two traditional coded grating sequences to obtain a new coded grating sequence. The encoded supergrating can flexibly control the scattering angle, and the designed substrate-free all-silicon encoded grating can achieve a deflection angle of 48.59°. In order to verify the principle of coded grating addition, we experimented with cascade operation of two coded sequence gratings to obtain the flexible control of the terahertz beam of the composite supergrating. The principle of grating addition provides a new degree of freedom for the flexible regulation of the terahertz wavefront. At the same time, this method can be extended to the optical band or microwave band, opening up new ways for electromagnetic wave manipulation and beam scanning.

On the basis of the stationary phase principle, we construct a family of shaping nondiffracting structured caustic beams with the desired morphology. First, the analytical formula of a nondiffracting astroid caustic is derived theoretically using the stationary phase method. Then, several types of typical desired caustics with different shapes are numerically simulated using the obtained formulas. Hence, the key optical structure and propagation characteristics of nondiffracting caustic beams are investigated. Finally, a designed phase plate and an axicon are used to generate the target light field. The experimental results confirm the theoretical prediction. Compared with the classical method, the introduced method for generating nondiffracting caustic beams is high in light-energy utilization; hence, it is expected to be applied conveniently to scientific experiments.

The spin Hall effect of a light beam is essentially a product of circular birefringence but is rarely demonstrated. Here, we provide a scheme for initiating off-axis circular birefringence based on the spin-dependent wave vector bifurcation of Bessel beams via a single liquid crystal Pancharatnam–Berry phase element. The tilted Bessel beam shows a detectable photonic spin Hall effect. By introducing the nonlinear propagation trajectories, the spin Hall effect is greatly enhanced. More surprisingly, the two spin states exactly propagate along the scaled trajectories, enabling flexible control of the spin separation. This phenomenon is also applicable to other Bessel-like beams with nonlinear trajectories, which have been already reported.

An optical system for the generation of partially coherent beams with genuine cross-spectral density functions from spatially modulated globally incoherent sources is presented. The spatial intensity modulation of the incoherent source is achieved by quasi-planar metasurfaces based on spatial-frequency modulation of binary Bragg surface-relief diffraction gratings. Two types of beams are demonstrated experimentally: (i) azimuthally periodic, radially quasi-periodic beams and (ii) rotationally symmetric Bessel-correlated beams with annular far-zone radiation patterns.

Structured light with more extended degrees of freedom (DoFs) and in higher dimensions is increasingly gaining traction and leading to breakthroughs such as super-resolution imaging, larger-capacity communication, and ultraprecise optical trapping or tweezers. More DoFs for manipulating an object can access more maneuvers and radically increase maneuvering precision, which is of significance in biology and related microscopic detection. However, manipulating particles beyond three-dimensional (3D) spatial manipulation by using current all-optical tweezers technology remains difficult. To overcome this limitation, we theoretically and experimentally present six-dimensional (6D) structured optical tweezers based on tailoring structured light emulating rigid-body mechanics. Our method facilitates the evaluation of the methodology of rigid-body mechanics to synthesize six independent DoFs in a structured optical trapping system, akin to six-axis rigid-body manipulation, including surge, sway, heave, roll, pitch, and yaw. In contrast to previous 3D optical tweezers, our 6D structured optical tweezers significantly improved the flexibility of the path design of complex trajectories, thereby laying the foundation for next-generation functional optical manipulation, assembly, and micromechanics.

Zero-energy topological states, which are protected by chiral symmetry against certain perturbations topologically, localize at interfaces between trivial and non-trivial phases in the Su–Schrieffer–Heeger (SSH) chain model. Here, we propose and demonstrate a method to manipulate chiral symmetry itself to improve the localized interfaces and enlarge the mode volume of topological states in the SSH model, thus optimizing the lasing performance of localized interfaces. As multiple defects corresponding to off-diagonal perturbations in an eigenmatrix are introduced, the topological state expands and extends to extra defects at the topological interface without breaking chiral symmetry. We apply the proposed method in electrical pumping semiconductor laser arrays to verify our theoretical prediction and optimize the output characteristics of the devices. The measured results of the proposed multi-defect SSH laser array show that the output power has been increased by 27%, and the series resistance and far-field divergence have been reduced by half compared to the traditional SSH laser array, establishing a high-performance light source for integrated silicon photonics, infrared light detection and ranging, and so on. Our work demonstrates that the proposed method is capable of improving topological localized interfaces and redistributing zero-energy topological states. Furthermore, our method can be applied to other platforms and inspire optimizations of more devices in broader areas.

We numerically demonstrate that the tight focusing of Bessel beams can generate focal fields with an ultra-long depth of focus (DOF). The ultra-long focal field can be controlled by appropriately regulating the order of the Bessel function and the polarization. An optical needle and an optical dark channel with nearly 100λ DOF are generated. The optical needle has a DOF of ∼104.9λ and a super-diffraction-limited focal spot with the size of 0.19λ2. The dark channel has a full-width at half-maximum of ∼0.346λ and a DOF of ∼103.8λ. Furthermore, the oscillating focal field with an ultra-long DOF can be also generated by merely changing the order of the input Bessel beam. Our results are expected to contribute to potential applications in optical tweezers, atom guidance and capture, and laser processing.

A precise knowledge of the polarization state of light is crucial in technologies that involve the generation and application of structured light fields. The implementation of efficient methods to determine and characterize polarization states is mandatory; more importantly, these structured light fields must be at any spatial location at a low expense. Here, we introduce a new characterization method that relies on a rather convenient description of electric fields without neglecting their 3D nature. This method is particularly suitable for highly focused fields, which exhibit important polarization contributions along their propagation direction in the neighborhood of the focal region; i.e., the contributions out of the planes transverse to the optical axis, conventionally used to specify the polarization state of these fields. As shown, the method allows the extraction of information about the three field components at relatively low computational and experimental costs. Furthermore, it also allows characterization of the polarization state of a field in a rather simple manner. To check the feasibility and reliability of the method, we determined both analytically and experimentally the local polarization states for a series of benchmark input fields with it, finding excellent agreement between the theory and experiment.

In this work, we apply the group representation theory to systematically study polarization singularities in the in-plane components of the electric fields supported by a planar electromagnetic (EM) resonator with generic rotation and reflection symmetries. We reveal the intrinsic connections between the symmetries and the topological features, i.e., the spatial configuration of the in-plane fields and the associated polarization singularities. The connections are substantiated by a simple relation that links the topological charges of the singularities and the symmetries of the resonator. To verify, a microwave planar resonator with the D8 group symmetries is designed and numerically simulated, which demonstrates the theoretical findings well. Our discussions can be applied to generic EM resonators working in a wide EM spectrum, such as circular antenna arrays, microring resonators, and photonic quasi-crystals, and provide a unique symmetry perspective on many effects in singular optics and topological photonics.

We studied the transport properties of a driven-dissipative photonic network, where multiple photonic cavities are coupled through a nonreciprocal bus with unidirectional transmission. For short-range coupling between the cavities, the occurrence of nonreciprocal amplification can be linked to a topological phase transition of the underlying dynamic Hamiltonian. However, for long-range coupling, we show that the correspondence between the nonreciprocal amplification transition and the topological phase transition breaks down as the transition conditions deviate significantly from each other. We found the exact transition condition for nonreciprocal amplification, supported by analytical calculation and numerical simulation. We also investigated the stability, the crossover from short- to long-range coupling, and the bandwidth of the nonreciprocal amplification. Our work has potential applications in signal transmission and amplification, and also paves the way to study other topological and non-Hermitian systems with long-range coupling and nontrivial boundary effects.