Federico Capasso plenary: Molding Optical Wavefronts: Flat Optics based on Metasurfaces

Metasurfaces based on sub-wavelength patterning have major potential for realizing arbitrary control of the wavefront of the diffracted light by achieving local control of the phase amplitude and polarization.

In "Molding Optical Wavefronts: Flat Optics based on Metasurfaces," Federico Capasso of Harvard University (USA) discusses novel devices based on this technique. A salient feature is the ability to create often with a single digital mask an arbitrary analog phase profile. A variety of flat optical components, including lenses, polarizers, vortex plates, coatings, holograms and couplers with polarization invariant coupling efficiency are presented.

Federico Capasso is the Robert Wallace Professor of Applied Physics at Harvard University, which he joined in 2003 after a 27 years career at Bell Labs. His research includes the invention of the quantum cascade laser, electronics, materials research, plasmonics and metamaterials, and the Casimir effect. Capasso recieved the SPIE Gold Medal Award at SPIE Optics + Photonics 2013.