Generalized Huygens' condition as the fulcrum of planar nonlocal omnidirectional transparency: from meta-atoms to metasurfaces

Fresnel reflection has been known for centuries to fundamentally impede efficient transmittance across planar interfaces, especially at grazing incidence. Herein, we present the generalized Huygens’ condition (GHC) to resolve such intricacies in metasurface (MS) designs and allow omnidirectional transparency. Compared to common numerical antireflective-coating approaches, our analytical framework yields surprisingly simple closed form conditions, carefully leveraging the natural nonlocal mechanisms endowed in planar electromagnetic structures. At the meta-atom level, we meet the GHC by balancing traditional tangential susceptibilities of Huygens’ MSs with their unconventional normal counterparts; the latter facilitates the key requisite of vanishing backscattering at the challenging grazing incidence scenario. At the MS level, we sheerly utilize this central insight to engineer realistic all-angle transparent printed-circuit-board (PCB) cascaded admittance sheets. Thoroughly validated in simulation and experiment, this universal GHC demonstrates a resourceful venue for practical implementation of advanced nonlocal devices, e.g., flat optical components, optical analog computers, and spaceplates.