Arbitrary polarization conversion dichroism metasurfaces for all-in-one full Poincaré sphere polarizers

Abstract

The control of polarization, an essential property of light, is of broad scientific and technological interest. Polarizers are indispensable optical elements for direct polarization generation. However, arbitrary polarization generation, except that of common linear and circular polarization, relies heavily on bulky optical components such as cascading linear polarizers and waveplates. Here, we present an effective strategy for designing all-in-one full Poincaré sphere polarizers based on perfect arbitrary polarization conversion dichroism and implement it in a monolayer all-dielectric metasurface. This strategy allows preferential transmission and conversion of one polarization state located at an arbitrary position on the Poincaré sphere to its handedness-flipped state while completely blocking its orthogonal state. In contrast to previous methods that were limited to only linear or circular polarization, our method manifests perfect dichroism of nearly 100% in theory and greater than 90% experimentally for arbitrary polarization states. By leveraging this attractive dichroism, our demonstration of the generation of polarization beams located at an arbitrary position on a Poincaré sphere directly from unpolarized light can substantially extend the scope of meta-optics and dramatically promote state-of-the-art nanophotonic devices.

Pixelated bifunctional metasurface-driven dynamic vectorial holographic color prints for photonic security platform

“…Also, a metasurface doublet structure has been demonstrated to enable nondispersive white-light holographic image projection 40 . An emerging concept of arbitrary polarization conversion dichroism has been able to make a metasurface-polarizer system, that generates an arbitrarily polarized beam for unpolarized incident light 41 . In addition, the concept of orthogonal polarization dichroism has been utilized to enable independent amplitude control over arbitrary orthogonal states of polarization 42 .…”

Electromagnetic Architectures: Structures, Properties, Functions and Their Intrinsic Relationships in Subwavelength Optics and Electromagnetics

“…spin-orbit interactions (PSOIs) has been proposed to achieve spin-decoupled multifunctional metadevices by merging propagation phase and geometric phase in plasmonic metasurfaces [91] and dielectric metasurfaces. [34,35,[112][113][114] Apart from independent control of the wave front of opposite-handedness, asymmetric PSOIs can also allow independent amplitude modulation by adopting super-atoms as building blocks, [115][116][117] which may be utilized for chiral imaging and elliptical polarizers. The symmetry breaking of PSOIs is attributed to the opposite spin dependence of the propagation phase and geometric phase.…”

Quad‐Band Transmissive Metasurface with Linear to Dual‐Circular Polarization Conversion Simultaneously

“…Polarization is a significant concept in electromagnetic (EM) field which is represented the characteristic of directional change of EM vector in space. [1][2][3][4][5] It can be divided into the following types including linear polarization (LP), circular polarization (CP) and elliptical polarization. [6][7][8] Owing to the advantage of low susceptibility to the rain echo and atmospheric effects, circular polarization wave has been extensively used in satellite communication systems, navigation systems and radar tracking systems.…”