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Twisted non-diffracting beams through all

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Cite this: Nanoscale, 2019, 11, 20571

dielectric meta-axicons†
Nasir Mahmood, ‡a Heonyeong Jeong,‡b Inki Kim,‡b
Muhammad Qasim Mehmood, ‡c Muhammad Zubair, c

Ali Akbar,d Murtaza Saleem,d Muhammad Sabieh Anwar,*d

Farooq Ahmad Tahir*a and Junsuk Rho *b,e

We demonstrate transmission-based all-dielectric, highly efficient (≈73.4%) and polarization-insensitive

Received 9th June 2019,
Accepted 29th September 2019
DOI: 10.1039/c9nr04888j
rsc.li/nanoscale
meta-axicons (for the visible wavelength of 633 nm) to generate zero and higher order Bessel beams
without using additional components. The Bessel beams, owing to their diverse applications and non-
diffractive properties, attract great interest from the scientific community. It is shown that the propagation
length can be increased through a lower numerical aperture (∼2600 λ for NA = 0.1) whereas a higher full
width at half maximum (< 0.5 λ) can be obtained for a higher numerical aperture (for NA ≥ 0.7). Our
dielectric material, hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H), provides a significant efficiency advantage
over plasmonic and other high-index all-dielectric (e.g., TiO2 and GaN) metasurfaces in terms of cost,
ease of fabrication, and CMOS compatibility. The finite difference time domain (FDTD) technique based
numerically simulated and experimental results show excellent agreement. Due to the technological and
scientific importance of the Bessel beams, the recommended material and meta-axicons provide an
efficient and compact platform for realizing various advanced applications like optical manipulation,
optical alignment, laser fabrication, imaging, and laser machining.

1. Introduction properties that are almost impossible to achieve through natu-

Metamaterials are artificially engineered media that consist of
precisely arranged meta-atoms (which are the basic building
blocks of metamaterials). They exhibit unique electromagnetic
a the state-of-the-art integrated technologies. The planar version
Research Institute for Microwave and Millimeter-wave Studies (RIMMS),
National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST), Islamabad 44000, Pakistan.
E-mail: farooq.tahir@seecs.edu.pk
b
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Pohang University of Science and
Technology (POSTECH), Pohang 37673, Republic of Korea.
E-mail: jsrho@postech.ac.kr
c the wavefront of electromagnetic light promises to compensate
NanoTech Lab, Department of Electrical Engineering, Information Technology
University of the Punjab, Ferozepur Road, Lahore 54600, Pakistan
d
Laboratory for Quantum Technologies, Department of Physics, Syed Babar Ali
School of Science and Engineering (SBASSE), Lahore University of Management
Sciences (LUMS), Opposite Sector U, D.H.A., Lahore 54792, Pakistan.
E-mail: sabieh@lums.edu.pk
e like perfect light absorption,10,11 color printing,12,13 point
Department of Chemical Engineering, Pohang University of Science and Technology
(POSTECH), Pohang 37673, Republic of Korea
† Electronic supplementary information (ESI) available: Supplementary texts and
figures with boundary conditions of the simulation, effective refractive index in
the waveguide, phase profile for the nano-pillar under different diameters, simu-
lation and experiment under different topological charges, magnified SEM
image of the nano-pillar, and full width at half maximum of the zeroth order
beam under different numerical apertures. See DOI: 10.1039/c9nr04888j
‡ These authors contributed equally to this work.
rally existing materials.1,2 This novel platform provides an
opportunity to realize various intriguing applications such as
invisible cloaking,3 negative refraction, super lensing, etc.4,5
However, their challenging three-dimensional (3D) fabrication,
complex design approach and significant material losses have
restricted their real-time applicability and compatibility with
of 3D metamaterials, containing a monolayer of subwave-
length-featured resonators, is termed metasurfaces. These can
introduce abrupt phase discontinuities along the interface
between two media.6 This unprecedented ability to control
for the losses and fabrication complexities associated
with 3D metamaterials7–9 and other conventional bulky com-
ponents. These unique features of metasurfaces also allow
on-chip realization of various interesting optical phenomena
cloud generation,14 lensing,15–17 Bessel beam generation,18–23
optical vortex generation,24–28 holography, etc.29–39
The pioneering work on metasurfaces featured the metallic
elements, gold and silver.25,40 However, limitations of polariz-
ation conversion and internal ohmic losses of noble metals at
optical frequencies41 hindered the development of efficient
and cost-effective plasmonic-based metasurfaces particularly

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in the visible domain. These limitations motivated the search
for appropriate materials in the visible spectrum to realize
highly efficient metasurfaces. The best candidate addressing
this issue is clearly lossless dielectric materials with polariz-
ation insensitive geometries of their nano-resonators, which
can ensure high efficiency for transmission-based geometries
in the visible domain. In this context, different research
groups have demonstrated highly efficient metasurfaces
through various lossless dielectrics (in the visible range); these
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include TiO2, GaN, Si3N4, etc. Though the performance of
these all-dielectric metasurfaces was high, they involved
complex and costly fabrication methods. Moreover, their
incompatibility with existing complementary metal–oxide–
semiconductor (CMOS) processes and technologies adds
another limitation for the cost-effective and large-scale realiz-
ation of metasurfaces. Hence, the ideal material for such a
situation would be the one which involves cost-effective and
simple fabrication methods and which is additionally CMOS
compatible. Polarization insensitivity is an added advantage.
Bessel beams (BBs) are a particular type of non-diffracting
beam that exhibits unique properties like self-healing, sup-
pression of diffraction, focusing of light along a line, etc.
These non-diffracting BBs are a set of solutions of the free
space Helmholtz equation.42 Mathematically, the field ampli-
tude for a scalar form of BBs in cylindrical coordinates can be
represented as
Eðρ; ϕ; zÞ ¼ E0 e jkz z jJ n ðkr ρÞje +jmϕ ð1Þ
where ρ, ϕ and z represent the cylindrical coordinates, E0 is
the amplitude, kz and kr are the corresponding wavevectors, Jn
is the Bessel function of the first kind which is a solution of
the Bessel differential equation and m is the topological
charge. Eqn (1) possesses a non-diffractive behavior when
0 < kr < k, as Jn(krρ) ensures an identical field distribution in
every plane normal to the direction of propagation. BBs have
fascinated the scientific community due to their numerous
enticing applications such as biological cell trapping and
manipulation,43 optical pulling,44 photolithography,45 optical
coherence tomography,46 light-sheet microscopy,47 laser eye
surgery, etc.48
Practically, any electromagnetic field will undergo diffrac-
tive spreading as it propagates in space after confinement
inside a finite area. This is regarded as one of the most well-
known phenomena of physics and affects all kinds of electro-
magnetic waves. An ideal non-diffracting beam is characterized
by its beam-like shape and its almost invariant intensity distri-
bution along the propagation axis. A source with infinite
energy is required to implement such an ideal non-diffracting
beam. Therefore, in practical systems, ideal non-diffracting
beams are unrealizable, so any truncation results in a non-
ideal or pseudo-non-diffracting beam whose intensity distri-
bution varies along the propagation axis. Hence, in practical
terms, the transverse intensity distribution of beams remains
unchanged only for a specific segment of the propagation
length.
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Conventionally, axicon lenses (which comprise conical
prisms) are employed to bend the incident light by refraction
to generate the first-order BB. Fig. S1b† demonstrates the
working principle of the traditional axicon with the axicon
angle α0. The incident plane wave is illuminated from the left
with a light source with the incidence angle αi. According to
the law of refraction
ng sinð90  α0 Þ ¼ na sinðαt Þ ð2Þ
αt ¼ 90  α0 þ β ¼ sin1 ½ng sinð90  α0 Þ ð3Þ
β ¼ sin1 ½ng sinð90  α0 Þ  ð90  α0 Þ ð4Þ
where ng and na are the refractive indices of glass and air
usually taken as 1.5 and 1.0 respectively and αt = αi + β. Hence
the numerical aperture (NA) of such a traditional axicon can
be described in terms of the axicon angle as
NA ¼ sin β ¼ sinðsin1 ½ng sinð90  α0 Þ  ð90  α0 ÞÞ ð5Þ
This equation shows that attaining a high numerical aper-
ture requires a smaller axicon angle. Considering glass as a
constituent material of the axicon (ng = 1.5), total internal
refraction occurs if α0 < 48.19°. In this case the NA of the
axicon can’t be larger than 0.75. Eventually this will also limit
the minimum achievable value of the full width at half
maximum (FWHM) of the beam. For the zeroth order Bessel
beam ( J0), the FWHM is defined as the waist of the beam
where the intensity drops to half of its central bright spot and
for the zeroth-order BB it is given by
0:385λd
FWHMJ0 ¼ ð6Þ
NA
where NA = (krλd/2π), λd is the design wavelength and kr is the
transverse wavevector. For the visible spectrum, the FWHM of
the zeroth-order BB is mainly a function of the design wave-
length, as NA is approximately constant due to weak dis-
persion of the constituent material (glass). One way forward
for this is to use a combination of annular aperture and high
NA objective lens to produce BBs with a subwavelength
FWHM. But this combination will result in lower efficiency as
the annular aperture blocks most of the incident light.
Moreover, the generation of higher-order BBs will require an
additional spiral phase plate or spatial light modulators along
with an axicon. Hence, commercially available axicons are not
only bulky and unfavorable for integrated photonics but also
suffer from various other limitations such as manufacturing
difficulties, limited full-wave at half maximum (FHWM), and
the inability to produce higher-order BBs.
To overcome the aforementioned limitations of convention-
al axicons, metasurfaces can provide an ideal chip-integratable
solution to realize zero and high order BBs with a subwave-
length FWHM through a compact nano-featured device. To
achieve highly efficient metasurfaces in the visible regime,
hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) can serve as an ideal
low-loss and cost-effective dielectric material.
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With this motivation, in the current work we demonstrate
highly efficient all-dielectric meta-axicons to generate zeroth
(m = 0) and higher order (m = 2 and 4) BBs without using
additional phase components. We have demonstrated a meta-
axicon which results in a non-diffracting beam for a finite
propagation distance. Naturally, all beams are diverging but
this designed structure generates the phenomena of a non-
diffracting beam for a propagation length of ≈1.6 mm which
is approximately equal to 2600 λ. A polarization insensitive
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along with a sufficiently high index of refraction (n = 3.2475)
for the operational wavelength of 633 nm. The inclusion of the
hydrogen content in a-Si can significantly decrease the imagin-
ary part of the refractive index compared to that of a-Si without
the inclusion of the hydrogen content by tuning the mobility
gap.49
In the current work, we utilize cylindrical nano-pillars of
a-Si:H, with a fixed thickness of 0.63 λ, as building blocks of
the all-dielectric meta-axicons. This provides a balanced trade-

response is achieved by adopting cylindrical nano-wave-
guides, whereas their geometrical parameters are optimized
through rigorous numerical optimization. We utilize hydro-
genated amorphous silicon as the dielectric material due to
its transparency window for higher wavelengths of visible
light and a sufficiently large real part of the refractive index
for strong confinement of light within it. These pseudo-non-
diffracting beams can become important for practical
applications.
2. Materials and methods
Fig. 1a presents the measured optical constants of a-Si:H and
the comparison with the standard amorphous silicon (a-Si) for
wavelengths ranging from 200 nm to 1000 nm. As compared to
a-Si (shown in blue and red curves), the proposed a-Si:H
material exhibits significantly reduced absorption (k = 0.0471)
off between ease of fabrication and diffraction efficiency. The
optical constants of our a-Si:H (sketched in green and black
curves respectively) in Fig. 1a reveal that it is best suited for
realizing efficient all-dielectric metasurfaces for visible wave-
lengths (mainly for red light). In metasurfaces, the spatial dis-
tribution of subwavelength resonators with different geometri-
cal parameters along the interface allows full control over the
wavefront of incident light. The implementation of any phase
dictated phenomenon through metasurfaces requires that
each nano-resonator must contribute a specified phase to
achieve the desired optical response.
We have designed and optimized the nano-features of our
nano-waveguides in such a way that they meet the requirement
of complete phase accumulation (0–2π), while maintaining the
maximum possible transmission efficiency. The proposed
nano-pillars follow the indexed waveguide mechanism where
the complete phase profile is acquired by changing the dia-
meter of the nano-pillars.50 By altering the diameter of the

Fig. 1 (a) Measured optical properties of the proposed hydrogenated amorphous silicon (green and black curves) compared with standard amor-
phous silicon (blue and red curves) for wavelengths ranging from 200 nm to 1000 nm. The reduced absorption of the proposed dielectric material
allows device design with higher diffraction efficiency which is an important requirement of many optical components. (b) Schematic of the nano-
pillar on a glass substrate indicating D as the diameter, H as the thickness, and U as the periodicity of the unit cell. The periodicity (center to center
spacing of the two nano-pillars) is optimized at 300 nm ensuring maximum attainable transmission efficiency also to facilitate the fabrication
process. (c) Complete 0–2π phase coverage of the impinged light is depicted under a linearly polarized plane wave source. By sweeping the diameter
of the nano-pillars ranging from 100 nm to 250 nm, complete phase modulation is achieved. (d) Working principle of the all-dielectric metasurface
as a meta-axicon tiling an ultrathin monolayer of a-Si:H on a glass substrate is presented where the metasurface is illuminated from the substrate
side.

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nano-pillars as a function of the position (xi, yj ), the effective
refractive index of the propagating mode is modified and even-
tually, the required phase modulation is achieved; this is illus-
trated in Fig. S1a.† These cylindrical nano-resonators act as
truncated waveguides whose behavior could be better under-
stood with the help of the indexed waveguide theory by the fol-
lowing equation:27
2π
Φ¼ neff H ð7Þ
λd
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where λd is the design wavelength, neff represents the effective
refractive index and H represents the height of the nano-
pillar.
The schematic depiction of the nano-pillar used to
implement the all-dielectric meta-axicons is given in Fig. 1b,
where H is the height and D is the diameter while U corres-
ponds to the periodicity of the basic building block. Due to the
cylindrical symmetry, the numerically simulated phase
response of the nano-pillar and overall behavior, both numeri-
cally simulated and experimentally verified, of the meta-
axicons are polarization insensitive. To address the limitations
imposed by the miniaturization of the integrated optical com-
ponents and fabrication techniques, the parameters of the
nano-resonators must be engineered intelligently. The
minimum diameter should meet the requirement enforced by
the aspect ratio (ratio between maximum height and
minimum feature size) and the maximum diameter should be
smaller than the periodicity of the unit cell, which is ulti-
mately addressed by the Nyquist criterion (U < λd/2NA). The
periodicity, center to center spacing between two nano-resona-
tors, is optimized to minimize the inter-resonator coupling
and allow the scattered light to interfere constructively, result-
ing in the maximum possible transmission amplitude. The
complete phase coverage, depicted in Fig. 1c, is achieved by
optimizing the various parameters such as a fixed thickness of
the nano-pillar (400 nm), aspect ratio (4.0), maximum and
minimum diameters (Dmax = 250 nm, Dmin = 100 nm) and
periodicity (U = 300 nm). To ensure the polarization insensitive
capability of the proposed building block, complete phase
(0–2π) pickup of the optical wavefront is acquired under linear
and circular polarization of the incident light which is shown
in Fig. 1c and Fig. S3a† respectively, showing excellent agree-
ment for the different polarization states. The above-men-
tioned optimization was achieved using the finite difference
time domain technique based on commercially available
FDTD Solution software (Lumerical). The basic building block
is simulated with periodic boundary conditions along the x-
and y-axis while it is simulated by perfectly matched layer
(PML) boundaries along the z-axis ( propagation direction).
The working principle of the all-dielectric meta-axicon is
shown in Fig. 1d where the 400 nm thick nano-pillars of a-Si:H
are spatially distributed along the interface. The meta-axicon
is illuminated with a plane wave from the substrate side, and
the diffracted light interferes constructively leading to the non-
diffracting behavior for a specific segment along the propa-
gation direction.
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This spatial distribution of nano-pillars (to form the meta-
axicons) to generate zero and higher order BBs is given in eqn
(8) and (9), respectively.
 
2π qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
φ1 ðxi ; yj Þ ¼ 2π   xi 2 þ yj 2  NA ð8Þ
λd
    
2π qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi yj
φ1 ðxi ; yj Þ ¼ 2π   xi 2 þ yj 2  NA þ m  tan1
λd xi
ð9Þ
where NA is the numerical aperture, xi and yi represent the
coordinates of each nano-pillar on the interface and m is the
topological charge indicating the number of intertwined
helices in the imaging plane. The presented all-dielectric
meta-axicons are implemented at the design wavelength λd =
633 nm.
For experimental investigation, different structures are
fabricated on a coverage area of 200 μm × 200 μm. First,
400 nm a-Si:H is deposited on a 500 μm thick fused silica
(SiO2) substrate by plasma enhanced chemical vapor depo-
sition (PECVD) (BMR Technology, HiDep-SC). Subsequently,
spin-coating and hotplate baking at 180 °C for 5 minutes
lead to 100 nm thickness of the positive tone resist
(Microchem, 495 PMMA A2). A conductive polymer layer
(Showa Denko, E-spacer 300Z), which is spin-coated at
2000 rpm for 60 seconds, can also reduce the charging effect
of the electron beam. Thereafter, the metasurface is crafted
by standard electron-beam lithography (EBL) (ELIONIX,
ELS-7800, 80 kV, 50 pA) with an optimized exposure dose of
around 1280–1600 μC cm−2. The conductive polymer layer is
removed by DI water dipping at room temperature for
2 minutes, and it is soaked in methyl isobutyl ketone
(MIBK)/isopropyl alcohol (IPA) 1 : 3 solution for 12 minutes
at 0 °C to develop the positive resist. After the development
of the positive resist, it is cleaned with IPA for 60 seconds.
Subsequently, a 30 nm thick chromium etch mask is formed
using an electron beam evaporator (KVT, KVE-ENS4004) with
a lift-off process which involves dipping in 50 °C acetone for
15 minutes and cleaning with IPA for 60 seconds. After dry
etching (DMS, silicon/metal hybrid etcher), the etch mask is
removed using the Cr etchant (CR-7).
Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images of the fabri-
cated meta-axicons for topological charge m = 0, 2 and 4 with
numerical aperture NA = 0.1 and 0.9 are given in Fig. 2. The
inset in each subfigure of Fig. 2 presents the magnified
version of the central part of each fabricated meta-axicon.
Nano-resonators of a-Si:H with 16 discrete levels of the dia-
meter increasing from 100 nm to 250 nm are spatially distribu-
ted along the interface to cover the complete phase with a step
size of 22.5°.
3. Results and discussion
For experimental verification of the generation of non-diffr-
acting twisted beams via all-dielectric, highly efficient and
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Fig. 2 SEM images of the fabricated meta-axicons. (a–c) Low magnification SEM images of the meta-axicons with NA = 0.1 having topological charge
m = 0, 2 and 4. The inset in each subfigure shows the high magnification image from the center of each structure. The scale bar for the low magnifi-
cation images is 10 μm while for the inset it is 2 μm. (d–f) SEM images of the meta-axicons with NA = 0.9 having topological charge m = 0, 2 and 4.

polarization insensitive meta-axicons, the fabricated struc- purpose. A helium–neon (HeNe) laser with an operational
tures are optically characterized in the transmission mode. wavelength of 633 nm exhibiting random polarization (with a
A sequential arrangement of optical elements in a custom- measured beam diameter of 0.63 mm and 2.0 mW power) is
built optical microscope as shown in Fig. 3 is used for this used to generate the electromagnetic wave. The incident light

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Fig. 3 An optical microscope is used to record the optical response of
meta-axicons. A helium–neon (HeNe) laser beam with an operational
wavelength of 633 nm is used to illuminate the sample being tested
from the substrate side. Beam expander: used to expand the optical
beam, Iris: to spatially filter the input beam. A polarizer and a quarter-
wave plate are used to rotate the polarization of the beam vertically and
horizontally and from the right and left. An optical focusing lens of
150 μm focal length focuses the polarized light at the back focal plane
of the objective lens. An objective lens with 100× magnifying power is
used to focus the beam to illuminate the meta-axicon. Sample being
tested: it consists of the structures for generating a non-diffracting
twisted beam with zero- and higher-order. CCD camera: charged-
coupled device camera used to record the optical response of the
meta-axicons.
with a diameter ∼0.63 mm allows us to illuminate the meta-
axicons by an approximate plane wave-like wavefront. The
input beam is passed through a beam expander and then
through an iris which spatially filters the randomly polarized
beam. A Glan–Thompson polarizer and an optional quarter-
Fig. 4 Experimental characterization of the fabricated all-dielectric meta-axicons. (a–f ) Description of the behaviour of the meta-axicons for NA =
0.1 and (g–l) for NA = 0.9 with topological charges m = 0, 2 and 4. For all the obtained results, the interval of diffracted light intensity is a step size
of 1 μm, which is recorded on the screen of the CCD camera.
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wave plate (QWP) are placed in the optical path to switch the
polarization of the incident beam horizontally and vertically
and from the left and right. This polarized light is then
focused on the back focal plane of the objective lens (100× oil
immersion lens but used dry) using an optical lens with a
focal length of 150 mm. The diffracted light of the meta-
axicons is imaged using a 100× objective. To ensure the
uniform illumination of the meta-axicon, this step is necess-
ary, and is called Kohler illumination. A homemade sample
holder on a translational stage having a kinematic resolution
of 0.5 μm along the direction of movement is used to hold
the fabricated sample. The diffracted light from the targeted
structure is captured on the screen of a CCD camera that is
placed in the optical path.
A prominent feature of the meta-axicon is that the trans-
mitted light is not sharply converged at a single point but
forms a continuous line of the intensity over a long distance
which is represented in Fig. 4, which shows that the Bessel
beam like behavior is generated through constructive inter-
ference of the diffracted light. The intensity of the transmitted
light starts increasing from the meta-axicon plane and reaches
a maximum value at the focal plane (where concomitantly
the minimum diameter of the beam is realized), after which
it gradually drops along the direction of propagation.
Experimental results of the optical characterization of the
meta-axicons, shown in Fig. 4, demonstrate the capability of
manipulating the incident plane wave into the non-diffracting
twisted beam for different topological charges. Structures with
dimensions of 200 µm × 200 µm having NA = 0.1, 0.7 and 0.9
are impinged by a laser beam with an operational wavelength
of 633 nm from the substrate side. During optical characteriz-
ation using the CCD camera, we captured the diffracted light
after every 1 µm and produced the intensity distribution by
stacking all these frames along the propagation axes. Fig. 4a–f
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Fig. 5 Experimental characterization of the full width at half maximum (FWHM) of the zeroth-order BB for NA = 0.1, 0.7 and 0.9 (a–c). These results
state that our meta-axicon can provide a sub-diffraction limited spot for high numerical apertures.
describe the optically characterized results for NA = 0.1 while
Fig. 4g–l illustrate the results for NA = 0.9 while the optically
characterized results for NA = 0.7 are described in Fig. S5g–l.†
Fig. 4a, c, e, g, i and k describe the measured results under
linear polarization for topological charge m = 0, 2 and 4
respectively while the remaining subfigures describe the same
behavior but under circular polarization of the incident light.
It is worth noting that the optically characterized behavior of
the fabricated meta-axicons shows excellent agreement
between linearly and circularly polarized light.
Fig. 5a–c show the measured FWHM of the zero-order ( J0)
Bessel beam at an operational wavelength λ = 633 nm.
The measured FWHM of the zeroth-order BB for NA = 0.1 is
observed to be ∼3.579 λ (2.265 μm), which is very close to its
theoretical limit of 2.437 μm (eqn (6)). The measured FWHM
of the J0 Bessel beam is 325 nm and 230 nm for NA = 0.7 and
0.9 respectively. These measurements show very good agree-
ment with theoretical values of 348 nm and 270 nm
respectively.
4. Conclusion
In conclusion, we have designed, numerically simulated and
experimentally demonstrated simple, highly efficient, polariz-
ation insensitive, all-dielectric meta-axicons that are capable of
generating zero and higher order Bessel beams in the visible
domain. It is observed that the propagation length and full
width at half maximum can be controlled via tailoring the
numerical aperture of the meta-axicons. The proposed
phenomenon utilizes cylindrical nano-waveguides of hydro-
genated amorphous silicon, which is an efficient (compared to
plasmonic materials), cost-effective and CMOS compatible
material choice compared to TiO2 and GaN. Meanwhile, the
cylindrical shape of nano-waveguides ensures the polarization
insensitive capability of the device. It is seen that changing the
diameter of the cylindrical pillar within a specific range helps
us to achieve the complete (0–2π) phase coverage and ulti-
mately full control over the wavefront of the incident light
which is essential to realize any phase dictated phenomenon.
Simpler fabrication requirements (due to a lower aspect ratio),
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cost-effectiveness and the novel approach of phase manipu-
lation into a single subwavelength thick surface show great
potential and promise for practical applications in integrated
optics and photonics.
Conflicts of interest
There are no conflicts to declare.
Acknowledgements
This work was financially supported by the National Research
Foundation (NRF) grants (NRF-2019R1A2C3003129,
CAMM-2019M3A6B3030637, NRF-2019R1A5A8080290,
NRF-2018M3D1A1058998, NRF-2015R1A5A1037668) funded by
the Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT) of the Korean govern-
ment. M. Q. M. acknowledges the research grant from HEC’s
NRPU (Award No. 10177). M. Q. M. and M. Z. acknowledge a
start-up research grant from ITU. I. K. acknowledges the
Global Ph.D. fellowship (NRF-2016H1A2A1906519) from
NRF-MIST of the Korean government. M. S. A., M. S., and
A. A. acknowledge financial support from the Higher
Education Commission (NRPU 2028) and the LUMS Faculty
Initiative Fund (FIF-PHY-319).
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