Balanced-ternary-inspired reconfigurable vortex beams using cascaded metasurfaces

Electromagnetic vortex carries the orbital angular momentum, one of the most fundamental properties of waves. The order of such vortex can be unbounded in principle, thus facilitating high-capability wave technologies for optical communications, photonic integrated circuits and others. However, it remains a key challenge to generate the high-order vortex beams in a reconfigurable, broadband and cost-effective manner. Here, inspired by the balanced-ternary concept, we demonstrate the reconfigurable generation of order-controllable vortices via cascaded N-layer metasurfaces. We theoretically showed that $$ different vortex modes can be generated by cascading N metasurfaces, each one serving as an individual vortex beam generator for the order of $$ (k = 0,1,2 …, $$ ). As a proof-of-concept demonstration, a reconfigurable generation of 26 different vortex beams, with orders from 1 to 13 and from -1 to -13, is showcased in a broad millimeter-wave region by a cascade of 3 metasurfaces. Our method can be easily extended to vortex beam generator of arbitrary orders in a reconfigurable and easily implementable manner, paving a new avenue towards tremendous practical applications.