Rewritable Chirality of Metasurfaces with Permittivity-Asymmetric Flatband Quasi-Bound States in the Continuum

Abstract

Flatband eigenstates are widely applied to enhance angle-robust light-matter interactions in metaphotonics. However, controlling the polarization of flatbands remains challenging, as it is usually fixed once the metasurface is fabricated, with no options of post-fabrication modification. Here, we present a rewritable permittivity-asymmetric quasi-bound state in the continuum (ε-qBIC) metasurface platform, where selective polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) coating of a silicon double-nanorod unit cell establishes a circularly polarized flatband state. By varying the PMMA thickness, the polarization of this state can be further controlled in the range from the right-circular to linear and to left-elliptical. The flatbands maintain stable resonance positions and robust far-field polarizations for the incidence angles up to 10 degrees. Importantly, the PMMA layer can be removed, recoated, and re-patterned on the same nanostructure, providing a pathway to rewrite the optical response. Building on this capability, we experimentally demonstrate the chirality encoding by spatially selective PMMA coating. The results establish a practical strategy for realizing high quality factor flatband metasurfaces with rewritable chirality, thus opening opportunities for applications in chiral encoding and chiroptical photonic devices in general.