Two-dimensional pixel-level addressable mid-infrared metasurface spatial light modulator

Cosmin-Constantin Popescu, Maarten Robbert Anton Peters, Oleg Maksimov, Harish B. Bhandari, Rashi Sharma, Kathleen A. Richardson, Arka Majumdar, Hyun Jung Kim, Rui Chen, Khoi Phuong Dao, Luigi Ranno, Brian Mills, Dennis M. Calahan, Tian Gu, Juejun Hu

07-07-2026
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Abstract — Active metasurfaces enable dynamic control of light for applications in beam steering, pixelated holography, and adaptive optics, but demonstrations of two-dimensional electrically addressable arrays have so far been limited. Here we introduce a scalable two-dimensional architecture based on phase-change materials integrated metasurfaces and apply it to realize the first transmissive mid-infrared amplitude-only spatial light modulator. The device is fabricated through standard silicon photonic foundry processing combined with backend-of-line integration and employs multilayer backend metal interconnects to implement a crossbar addressing scheme. Each pixel is integrated with a silicon diode selector to suppress sneak-path currents, a feature essential for scaling to large arrays. The result establishes a foundry-compatible route to high-density, large-area active metasurfaces with independently tunable pixels.

                              

Juejun Hu             

Juejun Hu
Associate Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, MIT