Guided mode meta-optics: metasurface-dressed waveguides for arbitrary mode couplers and on-chip OAM emitters with a configurable topological charge

Abstract

Metasurface has achieved fruitful results in tailoring optical fields in free space. However, a systematic investigation on applying meta-optics to completely control waveguide modes is still elusive. Here we present a comprehensive catalog to selectively and exclusively couple free space light into arbitrary high-order waveguide modes of interest, leveraging silicon metasurface-patterned silicon nitride waveguides. By simultaneously engineering the matched phase gradient of the nanoantennas and the vectorial spatial modal overlap between the antenna near-field and target waveguide mode profile, either single or multiple high-order modes are successfully launched with high purity reaching 98%. Moreover, on-chip twisted light generators are theoretically proposed with configurable OAM topological charge ℓ from −3 to +2. This work may serve as a comprehensive framework for guided mode meta-optics and motivates further applications such as versatile integrated couplers, multiplexers, and mode-division multiplexing-based communication systems.