Curved metagrating monolithically integrated with a vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser for efficient oblique emission

Recent advancements in the integration of flat metaoptic components with light sources and detectors have created exciting possibilities for developing compact optical measurement devices. We have demonstrated monolithic integration of curved GaAs metagratings on vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs), creating an ultra-compact illumination module for both total internal reflection and dark field microscopy techniques. Based on an unconventional design that circumvents the aspect ratio-dependent etching problems associated with monolithic integration, our integrated metagratings VCSELs generate a quasi-collimated off-axis beam centered at 60° in air and 63° in glass and achieves relative deflection efficiencies of 90% and 70%, respectively.