Fullwave design of cm-scale cylindrical metasurfaces via fast direct solvers

Abstract: Large-scale metasurfaces promise nanophotonic performance improvements to macroscopic optics functionality, for applications from imaging to analog computing. Yet the size scale mismatch of centimeter-scale chips versus micron-scale wavelengths prohibits use of conventional full-wave simulation techniques, and has necessitated dramatic approximations. Here, we show that tailoring "fast direct" integral-equation simulation techniques to the form factor of metasurfaces offers the possibility for accurate and efficient full-wave, large-scale metasurface simulations. For cylindrical (two-dimensional) metasurfaces, we demonstrate accurate simulations whose solution time scales \emph{linearly} with the metasurface diameter. Moreover, the solver stores compressed information about the simulation domain that is reusable over many design iterations. We demonstrate the capabilities of our solver through two designs: first, a high-efficiency, high-numerical-aperture metalens that is 20,000 wavelengths in diameter. Second, a high-efficiency, large-beam-width grating coupler. The latter corresponds to millimeter-scale beam design at standard telecommunications wavelengths, while the former, at a visible wavelength of 500 nm, corresponds to a design diameter of 1 cm, created through full simulations of Maxwell's equations.