Metasurface-Enabled Interference Suppression at Visible-Light Communications

Light can be used for wireless information transmission apart from illumination; that is the key idea behind visible-light communication (VLC), one of the disruptive technologies of our days. It combines remarkably high data rates due to ultrashort wavelengths with huge reliability and security due to small distances; nevertheless, it substantially suffers from interference of neighboring light sources in multiple-link configurations. In this manuscript, we investigate a pair of light emitting diodes (LEDs) interfering each other and propose a simple nanoslit metasurface that radically increases the directivity of the transmitting beams. As a result, enhancement of the signal-to-interference ratio by several orders of magnitude is reported. The considered generic setup retains its beneficial features in the presence of realistic design defects and, accordingly, may inspire standardization efforts towards the adoption of VLC in next-generation heterogeneous communication networks.