Selective Diffraction with Complex Amplitude Modulation by Dielectric Metasurfaces

Metasurfaces have attracted extensive interests due to their ability to locally manipulate optical parameters of light and easy integration to complex optical systems. Particularly, metasurfaces can provide a novel platform for splitting and diffracting light into several beams with desired profile, which is in contrast to traditional gratings. Here, we propose and experimentally demonstrate a novel method for generating independently selective diffraction orders. Our method is based on complex amplitude modulation with ultrathin dielectric metasurfaces. By tailoring the geometric parameters of silicon nanofin structures, we can spatially control the geometric and dynamic phase as well as the amplitude simultaneously. We compare the results with a metasurface that uses a phase-only modulation, to verify such selective diffraction can be solely efficiently achieved with complex amplitude modulation. Besides, the diffraction angles of each order have been measured, which are consistent with standard grating theory. Our developed method for achieving selective diffraction with metasurfaces has potential applications in beam shaping, parallel laser fabrication, and nanoscale optical detection.