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Updated: May 16, 2026

Demonstration of Equal-Intensity Beam Generation by Dielectric Metasurfaces
Published on: June 7, 2019
Electron-beam-driven collective-mode metamaterial light source
1Optoelectronics Research Centre and Centre for Photonic Metamaterials, University of Southampton, Highfield, Southampton SO17 1BJ, United Kingdom.
Abstract:
We demonstrate experimentally that the energy from a highly localized free-electron-beam excitation can be converted via a planar plasmonic metamaterial to a low-divergence free-space light beam. This emission, which emanates from a collectively oscillating coupled metamolecule nanoantenna ensemble much larger in size than the initial excitation, is distinctly different from cathodoluminescence and bears some similarity with laser light. It offers a novel, flexible paradigm for the development of scalable, threshold-free light sources.
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