Metasurface Polarimeter for Structural Imaging and Tissue Diagnostics

TL;DR

This paper introduces a compact metasurface polarimeter that rapidly measures polarization states in tissue samples, potentially revolutionizing histopathology by replacing bulky, slow traditional systems with a miniaturized, accurate device.

Contribution

The authors designed, fabricated, and validated a novel metasurface polarimeter operating at 640 nm for tissue analysis, enabling simultaneous Stokes parameter measurement in a compact form.

Findings

Achieved ±2% accuracy in polarization measurement

Successfully mapped polarization changes in tissue phantom mimicking biopsy

Demonstrated potential for clinical histopathology applications

Abstract

Histopathology, the study and diagnosis of disease through analysis of tissue samples, is an indispensable part of modern medicine. However, the practice is time consuming and labor intensive, compelling efforts to improve the process and develop new approaches. One perspective technique involves mapping changes in the polarization state of light scattered by the tissue, but the conventional implementation requires bulky polarization optics and is slow. We report the design, fabrication and characterization of a compact metasurface polarimeter operating at 640 nm enabling simultaneous determination of Stokes parameters and degree of polarization with $\pm$2% accuracy. To validate its use for histopathology we map polarization state changes in a tissue phantom mimicking a biopsy with a cancerous inclusion, comparing it to a commercial polarimeter. The results indicate a great potential and suggest several improvements with which we believe metasurface polarimeter based devices will be ready for practical histopathology application in clinical environment.