Plasmonic metagratings for simultaneous determination of Stokes parameters

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel plasmonic metagrating that enables simultaneous measurement of all Stokes parameters of light's polarization state through diffraction contrast analysis, simplifying polarization analysis.

Contribution

The work presents the design and experimental validation of all-polarization birefringent metagratings based on plasmonic metasurfaces for parallel polarization state measurement.

Findings

Successful design and fabrication of phase-gradient birefringent metasurfaces.

Experimental demonstration of simultaneous Stokes parameter measurement.

Potential application in compact, versatile polarimetric devices.

Abstract

Measuring light's state of polarization is an inherently difficult problem, since the phase information between orthogonal polarization states is typically lost in the detection process. In this work, we bring to the fore the equivalence between normalized Stokes parameters and diffraction contrasts in appropriately designed phase-gradient birefringent metasurfaces and introduce a concept of all-polarization birefringent metagratings. The metagrating, which consists of three interweaved metasurfaces, allows one to easily analyze an arbitrary state of light polarization by conducting simultaneous (i.e., parallel) measurements of the correspondent diffraction intensities that reveal immediately the Stokes parameters of the polarization state under examination. Based on plasmonic metasurfaces operating in reflection at the wavelength of 800 nm, we design and realize phase-gradient birefringent metasurfaces and the correspondent metagrating, while experimental characterization of the fabricated components convincingly demonstrates the expected functionalities. We foresee the use of the metagrating in compact polarimetric setups at any frequency regime of interest.