面向偏振成像的超构表面研究进展

Polarization imaging, a novel photoelectric detection technology, can simultaneously acquire the contour information and polarization features of a scene. For specific application scenarios, polarization imaging has the excellent ability to distinguish different objects and highlight their outlines. Therefore, polarization imaging has been widely applied in the fields of object detection, underwater imaging, life science, environmental monitoring, 3D imaging, etc. Polarization splitting or the filtering device is the core element in a polarization imaging system. The traditional counterpart suffers from a bulky size, poor optical performance, and being sensitive to external disturbances, and can hardly meet the requirements of a highly integrated, highly functional, and highly stable polarization imaging system. A metasurface is a two-dimensional planar photonic device whose comprising units are arranged quasi-periodically at subwavelength intervals, and can finely regulate the amplitude and phase of the light field in different polarization directions. Polarization devices based on metasurface are featured with compactness, lightweight and multi-degree freedom, offering an original solution to ultracompact polarization imaging systems. Targeted at the field of polarization imaging, this paper illustrates the functional theory, developmental process and future tendency of related metasurfaces. We discuss the challenges and prospect on the future of imaging applications and systematic integrations with metasurfaces.