Artificial electromagnetic surfaces, metasurfaces, control light in the desired manner through the introduction of abrupt changes of electromagnetic fields at interfaces. Current modelling of metasurfaces successfully exploits generalised sheet transition conditions (GSTCs), a set of boundary conditions that account for electric and magnetic metasurface-induced optical responses. GSTCs are powerful theoretical tools but they are not readily applicable for arbitrarily shaped metasurfaces. Accurate and computationally efficient algorithms capable of implementing artificial boundary conditions are highly desired for designing free-form photonic devices. To address this challenge, we propose a numerical method based on conformal boundary optics with a modified finite difference time-domain (FDTD) approach which accurately calculates the electromagnetic fields across conformal metasurfaces. Illustrative examples of curved meta-optics are presented, showing results in good agreement with theoretical predictions. This method can become a powerful tool for designing and predicting optical functionalities of conformal metasurfaces for new lightweight, flexible and wearable photonic devices.

We experimentally report a kind of plasmonic metamaterials for high sensitive refractive index sensing. The metamaterials are an X-shaped metal nanohole array fabricated by holographic lithography followed by electron-beam evaporation and lift-off procedure. Transmission spectrum measurements reveal that the localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) wavelength of such nanohole array shows ultrasensitive response to refractive index change in the surrounding medium. A sensitivity of 1398 nm per refractive index unit is achieved at near infrared. The high sensitivity is attributed to the well confined and greatly enhanced electric field created by LSPR as well as the increased spatial overlap between the localized electric field and the surrounding medium. The robust fabrication technique and high sensitivity provide the present plasmonic metamaterials great potentials for the development of chip-based high sensitive nanooptical biomedicine sensors and integrated devices.

Random lasers employing multiple scattering and interference processes in highly disordered media have been studied for several decades. However, it remains a challenge to achieve a broadband multimode random laser with high scattering efficiency, particularly at long wavelengths. Here, we develop a new class of strongly multimode random lasers in the terahertz (THz) frequency range in which optical feedback is provided by multiple scattering from metal pillars embedded in a quantum cascade (QC) gain medium. Compared with the dielectric pillars or air hole approaches used in previous random lasers, metal pillars provide high scattering efficiency over a broader range of frequencies and with low ohmic losses. Complex emission spectra are observed with over 25 emission peaks across a 0.4 THz frequency range, limited primarily by the gain bandwidth of the QC wafer employed. The experimental results are corroborated by numerical simulations that show the lasing modes are strongly localized.

One-dimensional Fibonacci gratings are used to transform evanescent waves into propagating waves for far-field super-resolution imaging. By detecting far-field intensity distributions of light through objects in front of the Fibonacci grating in free space, we can observe the objects with nearly λ/9 spatial resolution. Analytical results are verified by numerical simulations. We also discuss the effect of sampling error on imaging resolution of the system.

We introduce a Fourier analysis method to design temporal cloaks for hiding events in time domain. The cloaks are constructed with two linear time-invariant filters with different transfer functions, which can create a temporal gap and then closed it orderly, making any events occurring during the gap not detectable outside. We further reveal that even a no-gap temporal cloak can also hide events. All the analytical results are verified by fast Fourier transformation simulations.