Polarization-independent optical spatial differentiation with a doubly-resonant one-dimensional guided-mode grating

TL;DR

This paper presents a polarization-independent optical spatial differentiator using a suspended silicon nitride grating, enabling first-order spatial differentiation of incident beams regardless of polarization, with potential applications in optical processing and sensing.

Contribution

The authors design and experimentally validate a simple, symmetric, polarization-independent guided-mode resonance device for optical spatial differentiation.

Findings

Achieved polarization-independent guided-mode resonance at oblique incidence.

Demonstrated first-order spatial differentiation of incident beam profiles.

Validated results with numerical simulations.

Abstract

We report on the design and experimental characterization of a suspended silicon nitride subwavelength grating possessing a polarization-independent guided-mode resonance at oblique incidence. At this resonant wavelength we observe that the transverse intensity profile of the transmitted beam is consistent with a first-order spatial differentiation of the incident beam profile in the direction of the grating periodicity, regardless of the incident light polarization. These observations are corroborated by full numerical simulations. The simple one-dimensional and symmetric design, combined with the thinness and excellent mechanical properties of these essentially loss-free dieletric films, is attractive for applications in optical processing, sensing and optomechanics.