Real-time multi-functional near-infrared wave manipulation with a 3-bit liquid crystal based coding metasurface

We propose a new generation of reprogrammable multi-functional bias encoded metasurfaces for dynamic wave manipulation using liquid crystals (LC). This metadevice is an array of unit-cells based on LCs to provide the desired phase steps based on its large birefringence property. The presented 3-bit coding metasurface (CM) use 8 states of "000"-"111" to control and manipulate the scattered wave at λ=1.4µm for several applications. The metasurface is introduced in detail and followed by several examples to show its versatility. Steered pencil, regular, and focused vortex beams with different topological charges are realized. The theoretical predictions are confirmed by numerical simulations. The proposed CM enables the realization of multifunctional optical wavefront manipulation and future intelligent optical devices.