Concentrating, diverging, shifting, and splitting electromagnetic beams using a single conical structure.

Bending, shifting, and splitting light rays are some of the basic operations in optics. A change of operation generally requires the device associated with a particular operation to be replaced by another one, resulting in delays. Here, we propose a structure that switches among bidirectional bending, shifting, and splitting of a light beam when rotating it. It is an anisotropic dielectric structure that makes light feel an effective asymmetric conical space. Such a system arises spontaneously in nematic liquid crystals, living liquid crystals, and active nematics and, in any case, can be realized with optical metamaterials. We numerically solve the wave equation to demonstrate bending, shifting, and splitting as noted above. When fabricated with liquid crystals, its functionality can vary with temperature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]