Spatial optical phase-modulating metadevice with subwavelength pixelation

Dynamic control over optical wavefronts enables focusing, diffraction and redirection of light on demand, however, sub-wavelength resolution is required to avoid unwanted diffracted beams that are present in commercial spatial light modulators. Here we propose a realistic metadevice that dynamically controls the optical phase of reflected beams with sub-wavelength pixelation in one dimension. Based on reconfigurable metamaterials and nanomembrane technology, it consists of individually moveable metallic nanowire actuators that control the phase of reflected light by modulating the optical path length. We demonstrate that the metadevice can provide on-demand optical wavefront shaping functionalities of diffraction gratings, beam splitters, phase-gradient metasurfaces, cylindrical mirrors and mirror arrays — with variable focal distance and numerical aperture — without unwanted diffraction