Helico-conical vector beams for intensity and polarization 3D light shaping

While vector beams offer an intriguing way to structure optical beams and enhance light-based technologies across many fields, their generation remains a challenging task in practical applications. Disclosing an unprecedented manipulation of light at the subwavelength scale, metaoptics have inspired smart and efficient solutions for spatially variant polarization structuring. Concurrently, the generalization of non-separability in polarization and phase manipulation extends the vectorial nature beyond standard vector vortices. In this work, we present the design and test of dual-functional metasurfaces for the compact generation of a new type of vector beam, so-called helico-conical vector beam, providing an inhomogeneous polarization pattern over customizable one-arm or two-arm 3D spirals of light. These devices pave the way to integrated optical architectures for dynamic optical manipulation and trapping in many fields, from optofluidics to quantum computing. (c) 2024 Optica Publishing Group under the terms of the