Full Stokes Polarimetry for Wide-Angle Incident Light

Polarimetry, the process of characterizing the polarization state of light in the target scene, plays a significant role in optical detection. A compact and wide-angle polarimeter is important in applications such as atmospheric environment and wave-front detection. However, the existing methods for polarimetry are often restricted to a fixed incident angle, which restrains the potential applications in wide-angle scenarios. Herein, a new kind of polarimeter, which can detect the incident angle and polarization state of incident light simultaneously, is demonstrated. The metasurface-based wide-angle polarimeter consists of 2 x 3 subarrays, which simultaneously controls the polarization and phase of light. The angle of incidence is obtained by the focus displacement of the quadratic lens at a large angle up to 40 degrees. Moreover, the polarimetry for wide-angle incident light is realized by the modified Stokes parameters. The proposed method enables simple and large-field-of-view optical devices for wave-front detection, biomedical imaging, and atmospheric environment detection.