Generation of Wavelength-independent Sub-wavelength Bessel Beams using Metasurfaces

Bessel beams are of great interest due to their unique non-diffractive properties. Using a conical prism or an objective paired with an annular aperture are two typical approaches to generating zeroth order Bessel beams. However, the former approach has a limited numerical aperture (NA), and the latter suffers from low efficiency since most of the incident light is blocked by the aperture. Furthermore, an additional phase-modulating element is needed to generate higher-order Bessel beams, which in turn adds complexity and bulkiness to the system. We overcome these problems using dielectric metasurfaces to realize meta-axicons with additional functionalities not achievable with conventional means. We demonstrate meta-axicons with high NA up to 0.9 capable of generating Bessel beams with full-width at half-maximum about as small as ~λ/3 (λ = 405 nm). Importantly, these Bessel beams have transverse intensity profiles independent of wavelength across the visible spectrum. These meta-axicons can enable advanced research and applications related to Bessel beams, such as laser fabrication, imaging, and optical manipulation.