Abstract Metasurfaces that consist of a monolayer of photonic artificial atoms are emerging as attractive materials for optical wavefront-shaping and polarization-control devices. By integrating nanophotonics with a phase-encoding technique, we demonstrate theoretically an information authentication method using dielectric metasurfaces that can be verified without information disclosure at visible wavelengths. The required secured diffraction pattern can be simply achieved by a metasurface hologram with a small number of pixels, which means increased efficiency and lower costs of production. Although the decrypted image is noisy, it can be authenticated by recognition algorithms where the primary image is used as a reference. The results show that the dielectric metasurface approach, providing great flexibility in the design of the wavefront of light and compatible with the CMOS technology, can be potentially applied in optical information security.
Abstract Metasurfaces that consist of a monolayer of photonic artificial atoms are emerging as attractive materials for optical wavefront-shaping and polarization-control devices. By integrating nanophotonics with a phase-encoding technique, we demonstrate theoretically an information authentication method using dielectric metasurfaces that can be verified without information disclosure at visible wavelengths. The required secured diffraction pattern can be simply achieved by a metasurface hologram with a small number of pixels, which means increased efficiency and lower costs of production. Although the decrypted image is noisy, it can be authenticated by recognition algorithms where the primary image is used as a reference. The results show that the dielectric metasurface approach, providing great flexibility in the design of the wavefront of light and compatible with the CMOS technology, can be potentially applied in optical information security.
Multi-channel information encryption technology has been implemented by metasurfaces owing to their superior capability in manipulating phase, amplitude, wavelength and polarization of incident light. However, any non-full-channel decoding may lead to the leakage of secret information. To further improve the security of information, in this paper, we propose a channel shared information encoding scheme by integrating visual secret sharing scheme with metasurface-based phase-encoding technique. The secret information can be reconstructed only by decoding all the wavelength channels of the metasurface, whiles meaningless images would be extracted in other channel decoding processes, without revealing any original information. The simulated results show the feasibility and adjustability of our encryption system, which can be potentially applied in future optical information security systems.
Optical metasurfaces open new avenues for the precise wavefront control of light for integrated quantum technology. Here, we demonstrate a hybrid integrated quantum photonic system that is capable of entangling and disentangling two-photon spin states at a dielectric metasurface. Via the interference of single-photon pairs at a nanostructured dielectric metasurface, a path-entangled two-photon NOON state with circular polarization that exhibits a quantum HOM interference visibility of 86 ± 4% is generated. Furthermore, we demonstrate nonclassicality andphase sensitivity in a metasurface-based interferometer with a fringe visibility of 86.8 ± 1.1% in the coincidence counts. This high visibility proves the metasurface-induced path entanglement inside the interferometer. Our findings provide a promising way to develop hybrid-integrated quantum technology operating in the high-dimensional mode space in various applications, such as imaging, sensing, and computing.
In recent decades, quantum information technologies have attracted significant attention and experienced rapid development due to their ultrafast processing speeds and high level of information security. A significant trend in this field of study involves the ongoing pursuit of integrating and miniaturizing quantum devices. Metasurfaces, which are artificially designed planar nanostructure arrays with versatile wavefront shaping capabilities, present a promising platform for the development of integrated photonic quantum devices by effectively controlling quantum light in multiple degrees of freedom. In this review, recent advances in the field of quantum photonics facilitated by metasurfaces, encompassing quantum light sources, manipulation and measurement of quantum states, and the intriguing functionalities of quantum metasurfaces, are summarized. Additionally, potential future directions for the advancement of quantum metasurfaces are discussed.
The convergence of metamaterials and quantum optics heralds a transformative era in photonic technologies, poised to revolutionize applications ranging from information processing and imaging to sensing and beyond. This review explores the synergistic integration of metasurfaces—engineered sub-wavelength planar structures—and quantum optics, which exploits quantum mechanical principles to manipulate light at the most granular level. We outline the design principles, fabrication processes, and computational challenges involved in creating quantum metasurfaces, discussing both forward and inverse design approaches. Advances in nanofabrication and intelligent optimization techniques, such as machine learning and topology optimization, have enabled the development of metasurfaces with unparalleled control over electromagnetic waves. We examine recent progress in using quantum metasurfaces for single-photon and multi-photon generation, quantum imaging, and quantum sensing, showcasing how these innovations achieve unprecedented precision and novel functionalities. Additionally, we highlight the integration of metasurfaces into quantum light manipulation, emphasizing their role in enhancing wavefront shaping and entanglement control. By providing a comprehensive survey of current advancements and future research directions, this review highlights the vast potential of metasurfaces and quantum optics at the crossroads, setting the stage for next-generation technological innovations that will define the forthcoming decade.
Metasurface holography has great application potential in the fields of optical display, optical storage, and security. Traditional metasurface holography uses the well-designed subwavelength structure to modulate the incident laser beam. Although many researches about laser metasurface holography have been realized, metasurface holography based on quantum light sources is rare. Here, we realized quantum metasurface holography through single-photon and multichannel polarization multiplexing metasurfaces, and we compared the quantum results with laser results. Our work proves that quantum light sources can be well modulated by the subwavelength structure of integrated metasurfaces and extend both fields of metasurfaces and quantum optics. This result shows that metasurfaces have the potential for use in various quantum devices to reduce the size of quantum devices, improve quantum efficiency, and enhance practicability, reliability, and accuracy.
We develop a phase-modulated optical system with sparse representation for information encoding and authentication. The optical cryptosystem is developed with cascaded phase-only masks, and the plaintext is encoded into the cascaded phase-only masks based on an iterative phase retrieval algorithm during the encryption. Two simple strategies are developed to generate sparse data: The sparse data are randomly generated from the extracted phase-only masks, and sparse data are randomly generated from the plaintext. These two sparsity strategies are respectively used in the proposed optical security system, and the decrypted images cannot visually render information about the plaintext. Optical authentication method is further applied to verify the decrypted images. It is illustrated that the optical authentication operation with sparsity strategy can provide an additional security layer for the optical security system.