Metalens Enabled Compact and Wide-Angle 3 × 3 Mueller Matrix Polarimetric Imaging for the Advanced Medical Applications

Recent advancements in nanofabrication technology and metalenses have enabled the miniaturization of polarization imaging devices. This study presents a novel polarization-sensitive metalens design specifically engineered for endoscopy applications, focusing on the early diagnosis of gastrointestinal diseases, particularly cancer. The proposed system integrates three apertures and three distinct metalenses with polarization orientations of 0°, 45°, and 90°, facilitating comprehensive polarization analysis through Stokes parameters and 3 × 3 Mueller matrix imaging. In the conventional systems, 9 sequential images are required to construct a 3 × 3 Mueller matrix. In contrast, the metalens-integrated system significantly reduces this requirement by capturing only three sequential images. The system achieves a modulation transfer function of 0.2 at 450 lp/mm with a 70° field of view while maintaining a compact form factor suitable for endoscopy applications. Moreover, the Mueller matrix transform and Mueller matrix polarization decomposition are analyzed for cancerous and healthy tissue samples from the colon, large intestine, and stomach. The results indicate that the proposed method achieves a compact size with a wide field of view while effectively differentiating pathological variations through Mueller matrix analysis.