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Metasurfaces Offer Full Control of Light Polarization

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CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Aug. 26, 2021 — Researchers at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Science have developed metasurfaces capable of manipulating the polarization of light with an unprecedented degree of control.

“This research shows that the ability to switch between holographic images that need not be limited to just two polarization states,” said Federico Capasso, the Robert L. Wallace Professor of Applied Physics and Vinton Hayes Senior Research Fellow in Electrical Engineering at SEAS and senior author of the research paper. “Our new metasurface can encode an unlimited number of holographic images or manipulate light in virtually infinite number of directions based on a very large number of polarization states.”
When illuminated with a laser light, the metasurface hologram implements a far-field in which light is directed on the basis of its incident polarization state. Here, the far-field measured on a digital image sensor reflects this desired behavior for six incident polarization states. Courtesy of the Capasso Lab/Harvard SEAS.
When illuminated with a laser light, the metasurface hologram implements a far-field in which light is directed on the basis of its incident polarization state. Here, the far-field measured on a digital image sensor reflects this desired behavior for six incident polarization states. Courtesy of the Capasso Lab/Harvard SEAS.

The research demonstrates a new way to control polarized light with metasurfaces, in which researchers engineer a holographic image with a polarization tunable response across the image itself. The approach, the researchers said, could lead to applications in diverse fields including imaging, microscopes, displays, and astronomy.


“This advancement is general and could be applied to almost any kind of optical system that uses polarized light,” said Noah Rubin, a postdoctoral fellow at SEAS and first author of the paper. “Specifically, this suggests that metasurfaces could be used in new types of laser systems whose output light could be engineered based on light’s polarization state, or perhaps even in telescope systems where similar types of optics are already being used to aid in the detection of Earth-like exoplanets.”

Holography has always been a popular technique to record and display information,” said Aun Zaidi, a graduate student at SEAS and co-lead author of the paper. “We have taken a fundamental principle of holography and generalized it in a way that greatly expands the information capacity of this rather old technique.”

The researchers plan to study the devices further to understand how they may be applied to real-world applications.

The research was published in Science Advances (www.doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abg7488).

Published: August 2021
Glossary
polarization
Polarization refers to the orientation of oscillations in a transverse wave, such as light waves, radio waves, or other electromagnetic waves. In simpler terms, it describes the direction in which the electric field vector of a wave vibrates. Understanding polarization is important in various fields, including optics, telecommunications, and physics. Key points about polarization: Transverse waves: Polarization is a concept associated with transverse waves, where the oscillations occur...
holography
Holography is a technique used to capture and reconstruct three-dimensional images using the principles of interference and diffraction of light. Unlike conventional photography, which records only the intensity of light, holography records both the intensity and phase information of light waves scattered from an object. This allows the faithful reproduction of the object's three-dimensional structure, including its depth, shape, and texture. The process of holography typically involves the...
lens
A lens is a transparent optical device that focuses or diverges light, allowing it to pass through and form an image. Lenses are commonly used in optical systems, such as cameras, telescopes, microscopes, eyeglasses, and other vision-correcting devices. They are typically made of glass or other transparent materials with specific optical properties. There are two primary types of lenses: Convex lens (converging lens): This type of lens is thicker at the center than at the edges....
Research & TechnologyOpticspolarizationpolarized lightholographymetasurfacelens2DHarvardHarvard UniversityHarvard SEASFederico CapassoScience Advances

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