Continuous three-dimensional varifocal of vortex beams with twisted metasurfaces

doi:10.1088/1674-1056/adfc42

Abstract Vortex beams with helical phase wavefronts and doughnut-shaped intensity profiles hold great promise for optical trapping, imaging, and quantum communication. However, dynamic control over their steering and focusing remains challenging with existing static generation methods. Here, we demonstrate a dynamic and compact moiré metasurfaces that enables full three-dimensional (3D) control over vortex beams. The paradigm incorporates a numerical unit cell model and an off-axis angular spectrum algorithm based on the generalized Snell's law of refraction in full space. The beam's transverse position and longitudinal focal length can be simultaneously controlled by integrating phase elements such as gratings, lenses, and spiral phase plates. This scheme offers a 12$\times$ large axial zoom range from 7.42 mm to 85.45 mm and a lateral steering capability of up to $\pm 48$ mm. The device exhibits an average side-mode suppression ratio of 27.3 and maintains a constant full width at half maximum over a 50$^\circ$ deflection range, preserving beam quality and directional stability during dynamic steering. This lightweight vortex beams solution may open new ways for dynamic beam shaping in super-resolution imaging, free-space communication, and biophotonics.

Keywords: vortex beams light manipulation tunable metasurfaces moiré theory

Received: 10 June 2025
Revised: 22 July 2025
Accepted manuscript online: 18 August 2025

PACS:	42.79.-e	(Optical elements, devices, and systems)
	42.15.Eq	(Optical system design)
	42.50.Tx	(Optical angular momentum and its quantum aspects)
	42.30. Ms

Fund: Project supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (Grant No. 2022YFF0706005), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 62275271, 62305387, 12272407, 62275269, and 62405037), the Natural Science Foundation of Hunan Province, China (Grant No. 2023JJ40683), the Foundation of NUDT (Grant No. ZK23-03), and Chongqing Natural Science Foundation (Grant Nos. CSTB2024NSCQ-MSX0581 and CSTB2024NSCQ-LZX0033).

Corresponding Authors: Junbo Yang
E-mail: yangjunbo@nudt.edu.cn

Cite this article:

Yiyi Li(黎仪艺), Wangzhe Zhou(周王哲), Shaoqi Li(李少奇), Xiaoyan Huang(黄晓艳), Fen Zhao(赵芬), Man Yuan(袁满), Jiagui Wu(吴加贵), Huan Chen(陈欢), Zhaojian Zhang(张兆健), and Junbo Yang (杨俊波) Continuous three-dimensional varifocal of vortex beams with twisted metasurfaces 2026 Chin. Phys. B 35 034208

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Continuous three-dimensional varifocal of vortex beams with twisted metasurfaces

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