Electrically tunable multifunctional polarization and space-dependent metasurface integrated with liquid crystal

Tunable metasurfaces are capable of unprecedented modulation of physical parameters such as polarization, amplitude, and phase of electromagnetic waves. However, existing solutions rarely combine the polarization manipulation ability of liquid crystals with the spatial and polarization multiplexing principles of metasurfaces. Here, we demonstrate an electrically tunable polarization dependent spatially multiplexed metasurface integrated with liquid crystals. Through the combination of polarization and space-dependent metasurface and birefringent liquid crystal, the tuning and switching of the multi-dimensional optical channels with two helicity states are realized, and the brightness and focal length of each optical channel can be different due to spatial reuse. The proposed modulation and integration scheme paves the way for dynamic metasurface devices in various applications such as depth estimation, light detection, ranging systems, and optical chips.