Chiral phase‐imaging meta‐sensors
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: Light waves possess multiple degrees of freedom besides intensity, including phase and polarization, that often contain important information but require complex and bulky systems for their measurement. Here we report a pair of compact multifunctional photodetectors that can selectively measure the local phase gradient of, respectively, the right and left circular-polarization component of any incident wave. These devices employ a chiral pair of integrated plasmonic metasurfaces to introduce a sharp dependence of responsivity on local direction of propagation of the desired polarization component. An order-of-magnitude polarization selectivity with respect to phase gradient is demonstrated with both devices. Using the measured device characteristics, we also describe computationally a pixel array that allows for the simultaneous separate mapping of the right and left circularly-polarized incident wavefronts in a particularly simple imaging setup. These unique capabilities may be exploited to enable new functionalities for applications in chemical sensing, biomedical microscopy, and machine vision.
Source: Nanophotonics
Institution: Boston University
Language: English
Field: Materials Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $2,995
Award: G7661672857
OpenAlex ID: W4408905341