New Device Bends Light So Fast, It Left Einstein’s Theories in the Dust. Study introduces an electrically tunable hybrid geometric phase optical element (GPOE) operating at a telecommunication wavelength of 1550 nm, leveraging a liquid crystal (LC) layer and an embedded metasurface for dynamic light modulation.
The device achieves a voltage-switchable diffraction efficiency from 8% to 56%, with a fast switching frequency exceeding 110 Hz, thanks to a thin cell design enabled by hybrid retardation.
The metasurface, with a subwavelength pixel size of 800 nm, induces precise LC alignment without conventional alignment methods, allowing for high-resolution LC patterning. Numerical simulations and experimental results confirm the joint contribution of LC propagation phase and metasurface resonance phase, reducing device thickness and enhancing response time compared to traditional LC-GPOEs.
The metasurface’s rectangular pillars (160 nm wide, 750 nm long, 190 nm high) ensure a halfwave condition, critical for efficient phase modulation.