Robust Classical and Quantum Polarimetry with a Single Nanostructured Metagrating

Shaun Lung; Kai Wang; Nicolas R H Pedersen; Frank Setzpfandt; Andrey A Sukhorukov

doi:10.1021/acsphotonics.3c01287

Robust Classical and Quantum Polarimetry with a Single Nanostructured Metagrating

ACS Photonics. 2024 Feb 15;11(3):1060-1067. doi: 10.1021/acsphotonics.3c01287. eCollection 2024 Mar 20.

Authors

Shaun Lung^{1

2}, Kai Wang³, Nicolas R H Pedersen¹, Frank Setzpfandt^{1

4}, Andrey A Sukhorukov²

Affiliations

¹ Abbe Center of Photonics, Friedrich-Schiller Universität, Albert-Einstein-Straße 15, Jena 07745, Germany.
² ARC Centre of Excellence for Transformative Meta-Optical Systems (TMOS), Department of Electronic Materials Engineering, Research School of Physics, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 2600, Australia.
³ Department of Physics, McGill University, 3600 rue University, Montreal, Quebec H3A 2T8, Canada.
⁴ Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering, Jena 07745, Germany.

Abstract

We formulate a new conceptual approach for one-shot complete polarization state measurement with nanostructured metasurfaces applicable to classical light and multiphoton quantum states by drawing on the principles of generalized quantum measurements based on positive operator-valued measures. Accurate polarization reconstruction from a combination of photon counts or correlations from several diffraction orders is robust with respect to even strong fabrication inaccuracies, requiring only a single classical calibration of the metasurface transmission. Furthermore, this approach operates with a single metagrating without interleaving, allowing for a reduction in metasurface size while preserving high transmission efficiency and output beam quality. We theoretically obtained original metasurface designs, fabricated the metasurface from amorphous silicon nanostructures deposited on glass, and experimentally confirmed accurate polarization reconstruction of laser beams. We also anticipate robust operation under changes in environmental conditions, opening new possibilities for space-based imaging and satellite optics.