Two-dimensional optical spatial differentiation and high-contrast imaging

Junxiao Zhou; Haoliang Qian; Junxiang Zhao; Min Tang; Qianyi Wu; Ming Lei; Hailu Luo; Shuangchun Wen; Shaochen Chen; Zhaowei Liu

doi:10.1093/nsr/nwaa176

Two-dimensional optical spatial differentiation and high-contrast imaging

Natl Sci Rev. 2020 Aug 6;8(6):nwaa176. doi: 10.1093/nsr/nwaa176. eCollection 2021 Jun.

Authors

Junxiao Zhou¹, Haoliang Qian², Junxiang Zhao³, Min Tang⁴, Qianyi Wu³, Ming Lei³, Hailu Luo¹, Shuangchun Wen¹, Shaochen Chen⁴, Zhaowei Liu³

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory for Micro-/Nano-Optoelectronic Devices of Ministry of Education, School of Physics and Electronics, Hunan University, Changsha 410082, China.
² Interdisciplinary Center for Quantum Information, State Key Laboratory of Modern Optical Instrumentation, ZJU-Hangzhou Global Science and Technology Innovation Center, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China.
³ Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA.
⁴ Department of Nano Engineering, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA.

Abstract

Optical analog signal processing technology has been widely studied and applied in a variety of science and engineering fields, with the advantages of overcoming the low-speed and high-power consumption associated with its digital counterparts. Much attention has been given to emerging metasurface technology in the field of optical imaging and processing systems. Here, we demonstrate, for the first time, broadband two-dimensional spatial differentiation and high-contrast edge imaging based on a dielectric metasurface across the whole visible spectrum. This edge detection method works for both intensity and phase objects simply by inserting the metasurface into a commercial optical microscope. This highly efficient metasurface performing a basic optical differentiation operation opens up new opportunities in applications of fast, compactible and power-efficient ultrathin devices for data processing and biological imaging.

Keywords: edge detection; metasurface; spatial differentiation.