Longitudinal field controls vector vortex beams in anisotropic epsilon-near-zero metamaterials

Area of Science:

• Optics and Photonics
• Materials Science

Background:

• Structured light, including vector beams with longitudinal field components, is crucial for advanced applications like optical trapping, quantum technologies, and nonlinear optics.
• Metamaterials offer unique optical properties due to their engineered structures, enabling novel light manipulation techniques.

Purpose of the Study:

• To demonstrate a new method for manipulating vector beams with longitudinal field components using metamaterials with extreme anisotropy.
• To investigate the influence of metamaterial anisotropy on the propagation of complex beams with inhomogeneous polarization.

Main Methods:

• Utilizing vectorial spectroscopy to analyze the interaction between vector beams and anisotropic metamaterials.
• Exploring the epsilon-near-zero (ENZ) regime to understand its effect on light-metamaterial interactions.

Main Results:

• Demonstrated that metamaterial anisotropy strongly affects the propagation of vector beams, particularly in the ENZ regime for light polarized along the optical axis.
• Showcased how controlling the balance between transverse and longitudinal fields allows for tailoring beam modal content, filtering diffraction, and shaping spatial polarization distributions.
• Highlighted the significant influence of longitudinal fields interacting with the metamaterial in the ENZ regime.

Conclusions:

• The interaction of vector beams with anisotropic metamaterials provides a powerful tool for controlling light properties.
• This research opens new avenues for applications in advanced microscopy, information encoding, biochemical sensing, and quantum technologies.