Full-Stokes polarimetry based on rotating metasurfaces

Abstract

Polarization is a fundamental property of light that contains valuable information about the targets. Polarimeters, which enable direct measurement of the state of polarization (SOP), are desired in many areas of science and technology. The polarimeters could be divided into static and dynamic ones, among which the dynamic ones have an advantage of eliminating the need of sophisticated error reduction algorithms. Here, we demonstrate a dynamic polarimeter based on metasurface. The unit cell of metasurface is designed both chiral and anisotropic in geometry, which can response differently for incident light with different polarizations. By mounting the metasurface on a rotating stage and recording the transmitted intensity at different rotation angles, the SOPs of the incident light were finally reconstructed based on a SOP retrieval algorithm developed here.