Field‐Driven Inverse Design of High‐Performance Polarization‐Multiplexed Meta‐devices

Abstract During the past few years, metasurface polarization optics has experienced remarkable advances, resulting in revolutionary applications in imaging, sensing, computing, etc. The realization of complex optical operations requires the consideration of both the individual meta‐atoms as well as their intricate couplings. However, conventional design methods face challenges as design degrees of freedom and functionality complexity. Additionally, previous studies are restricted to the local design of single meta‐atoms based on explicit mapping relationships while ignoring interactions, resulting in an inability to meet the on‐demand requirements of complex light‐field operations. Here, a global design strategy based on field‐driven polygon evolution to achieve the inverse design of large‐scale coupled meta‐atoms is proposed. Through two global simulations, it can effectively reshape any given target optical field into an optimal structural distribution of devices without knowing mapping relationship. Near‐perfect spin‐decoupled beam‐splitting and high‐performance focusing, as well as the generation of arbitrary vector optical fields on the Poincaré sphere with a maximal diffraction efficiency closely approaching 100%, are experimentally demonstrated. This strategy opens up a new avenue for a rapid inverse design of large‐scale, high‐performance multifunctional meta‐devices, which can hold significant implications for both classical and quantum information processing domains.