3D Meta-Optics for High-Energy Lasers

Engineering electromagnetic fields in 3D dielectric structures to change the way components are designed and fabricated for high-energy laser (HEL) applications.

Air Force Research Laboratory, Arlington, Virginia

The scope of this research radically changed the way novel components are designed and fabricated for high-energy applications. This 3D Meta-Optics platform was, and is, essentially engineering the electromagnetic fields in 3D dielectric structures. The results have provided a class of transformational optical components that can be integrated at all levels throughout a high-energy laser system.

A Guided-Mode Resonance Filter (GMRF) is an optically resonant structure consisting of a subwavelength grating (SWG) and a high-index waveguide layer fabricated on a supporting substrate. The devices work based on the electromagnetic coupling of a narrow spectral band from the incident light, due to diffraction by the SWG into leaky waveguide modes, which in turn re-couples to the SWG, and exit the device from the incidence side. This effect results in high reflectance at the desired wavelength band of interest.