Improving the transmittance of an epsilon-near-zero-based wavefront shaper

Although epsilon-near-zero (ENZ) metamaterials offer many unconventional ways to play with light, the optical impedance mismatch with surroundings can limit the efficiency of future devices. We report here on the improvement of the transmittance of an ENZ wavefront shaper. In this Letter, we first address the way to enhance the transmittance of a plane wave through a layer of ENZ material, thanks to a numerical optimization approach based on the transfer matrix method. We then transpose the one-dimensional approach to a two-dimensional case where the emission of a dipole is shaped into a plane wave by an ENZ device with a design that optimizes the transmittance. As a result, we demonstrate a transmittance efficiency of 15% that is four orders of magnitude higher than previous devices proposed in the literature for wavefront shaping applications. This Letter aims to pave the way for future efficient ENZ devices by offering new strategies to optimize the transmittance through ENZ materials. (C) 2016 Optical Society of America