Versatile on-chip light coupling and (de)multiplexing from arbitrary polarizations to controlled waveguide modes using an integrated dielectric metasurface

Metasurfaces have found broad applicability in free-space optics, while its potential to tailor guided waves remains barely explored. By synergizing the Jones matrix model with generalized Snell’s law under the phase-matching condition, we propose a universal design strategy for versatile on-chip mode-selective coupling with polarization sensitivity, multiple working wavelengths, and high efficiency concurrently. The coupling direction, operation frequency, and excited mode type can be designed at will for arbitrary incident polarizations, outperforming previous technology that only works for specific polarizations and lacks versatile mode controllability. Here, using silicon-nanoantenna-patterned silicon-nitride photonic waveguides, we numerically demonstrate a set of chip-scale optical couplers around 1.55 μm, including mode-selective directional couplers with high coupling efficiency over 57% and directivity about 23 dB. Polarization and wavelength demultiplexer scenarios are also proposed with 67% maximum efficiency and an extinction ratio of 20 dB. Moreover, a chip-integrated twisted light generator, coupling free-space linear polarization into an optical vortex carrying 1ℏ orbital angular momentum (OAM), is also reported to validate the mode-control flexibility. This comprehensive method may motivate compact wavelength/polarization (de)multiplexers, multifunctional mode converters, on-chip OAM generators for photonic integrated circuits, and high-speed optical telecommunications.