All-dielectric metasurface for fully resolving arbitrary beams on a higher-order Poincaré sphere

Abstract

Characterizing the amplitude, phase profile, and polarization of optical beams is critical in modern optics. With a series of cascaded optical components, one can accurately resolve the optical singularity and polarization state in traditional polarimetry systems. However, complicated optical setups and bulky configurations inevitably hinder future applications for integration. Here, we demonstrate a metadevice that fully resolves arbitrary beams on a higher-order Poincaré sphere (HOPS) via a single-layer all-silicon metasurface. The device is compact and capable of detecting optical singularities and higher-order Stokes parameters simultaneously through a single intensity measurement. To verify the validity of the proposed metadevice, different beams on <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline" id="m1"> <mml:mrow> <mml:msub> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>HOPS</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mn>0</mml:mn> <mml:mo>,</mml:mo> <mml:mn>0</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> </mml:msub> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> and <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline" id="m2"> <mml:mrow> <mml:msub> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>HOPS</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mn>1</mml:mn> <mml:mo>,</mml:mo> <mml:mo>−</mml:mo> <mml:mn>1</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> </mml:msub> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> are illuminated on the metadevices. The beams are fully resolved, and the reconstructed higher-order Stokes parameters show good agreement with the original ones. Taking the signal-to-noise ratio into account, the numerical simulations indicate that the design strategy can be extended to fully resolve arbitrary beams on HOPS with order up to 4. Because of the advantages of compact configuration and compatibility with current semiconductor technology, the metadevice will facilitate potential applications in information processing and optical communications.

Topics & Concepts