title: Meta-q-plate for complex beam shaping.
abstract: Optical beam shaping plays a key role in optics and photonics. In this work, meta-q-plate featured by arbitrarily space-variant optical axes is proposed and demonstrated via liquid crystal photoalignment based on a polarization-sensitive alignment agent and a dynamic micro-lithography system. Meta-q-plates with multiple-, azimuthally/radially variant topological charges and initial azimuthal angles are fabricated. Accordingly, complex beams with elliptical, asymmetrical, multi-ringed and hurricane transverse profiles are generated, making the manipulation of optical vortex up to an unprecedented flexibility. The evolution, handedness and Michelson interferogram of the hurricane one are theoretically analysed and experimentally verified. The design facilitates the manipulation of polarization and spatial degrees of freedom of light in a point-to-point manner. The realization of meta-q-plate drastically enhances the capability of beam shaping and may pave a bright way towards optical manipulations, OAM based informatics, quantum optics and other fields.
authors.affiliation: National Laboratory of Solid State Microstructures, Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Microstructures and College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China.
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Ji
authors.affiliation: Department of Photonics, National Sun Yat-sen University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan 80424, R.O.C.
authors.forename: Chun-Hong
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: National Laboratory of Solid State Microstructures, Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Microstructures and College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China.
authors.forename: Peng
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: National Laboratory of Solid State Microstructures, Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Microstructures and College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China.
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.affiliation: National Laboratory of Solid State Microstructures, Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Microstructures and College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China.
authors.forename: Yang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ming
authors.affiliation: National Laboratory of Solid State Microstructures, Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Microstructures and College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China.
authors.forename: Lijian
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Photonics, National Sun Yat-sen University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan 80424, R.O.C.
authors.forename: Tsung-Hsien
authors.initials: TH
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.affiliation: Center for Display Research, Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China.
authors.forename: Vladimir
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Chigrinov
authors.affiliation: National Laboratory of Solid State Microstructures, Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Microstructures and College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China.
authors.forename: Yan-Qing
authors.initials: YQ
authors.lastname: Lu