A metalens for detecting fractional-order optical vortices

In this work, a metalens for detecting an incident field with a fractional topological charge ranging from – 2 to 0 is proposed. The metalens is based on a spiral zone plate with a topological charge of 1.5. A change in the topological charge of the incident beam is numerically shown to lead to an off-axis shift of the focal spot from the center, with the intensity maximum value also changing. This results in a 6.9-fold change in the on-axis intensity while the topological charge of the incident beam changes from –0.6 to –1.5. The on-axis intensity at the focus is also shown to be affected by the rotation of the fractional vortex beam. This makes it possible to use the proposed metalens for measuring the angle of rotation of the incident beam in the range from 0 to 110°.