Electrically controlled active metasurfaces for free space optical communications

Abstract

Active metasurfaces designed to operate at optical frequencies are a new class of flat optical elements that can dynamically control the wavefront of the reflected or transmitted light at a subwavelength scale. Here, we estimate the feasibility of using gate-tunable conducting oxide metasurfaces as electrically steerable apertures for free space optical communications. Our optical link budget analysis shows that for pulse energies of 1 mJ, free space optical communication at distances of 100000 km is possible. We further elaborate our analysis by adopting a system design approach and refining our optical link budget analysis.