Spatiotemporal Optical Vortices From All-Dielectric Bilayer Metagratings

Abstract

Spatiotemporal optical vortices (STOVs) carry transverse orbital angular momentum within the space-time domain, rendering them powerful tools for constructing high-dimensional and quantum optical fields. However, most existing approaches rely on highly lossy metallic structures or complex pulse-shaping systems. Here, we propose an all-dielectric route to STOV generation based on symmetry-protected bound states in the continuum (BICs) in a bilayer metagrating and provide proof-of-concept validation of its key momentum-frequency signatures. By simply introducing a lateral shift between the upper and lower layers of the vertical slots on the dielectric metagrating, the Γ-point BIC transforms into a quasi-BIC (qBIC) with directional radiation and asymmetric coupling. This qBIC further leads to an isolated zero-transmission dip associated with a clear phase singularity and branch cut in the momentum-frequency response, enabling stable STOV generation under excitation by a spatiotemporal Gaussian pulse. The multipole analysis of the STOV generation reveals the key role of the asymmetric magnetic dipole of the qBIC. Experimentally, free-space transmission measurements reveal a transmission zero and a branch cut that agree excellently with theoretical analysis. Therefore, our work provides an experimentally validated, scalable route for manipulating spatiotemporal optical fields on low-loss all-dielectric metasurfaces via only gliding offsets, with potential applications in directional coupling of quantum light sources and spatiotemporal shaping of single-photon wave packets.