Polarization and Holography Recording in Real- and k-Space Based on Dielectric Metasurface

The diverse design freedom and mechanisms of metasurfaces motivate the manipulation of polarization in an ultrashort distance with subwavelength resolution and make metasurfaces outperform conventional polarization optical elements. However, in order to enhance the information capability and encryption security of metasurface holograms, polarization manipulation together with multiplexing technologies are still highly desired. Here, a birefringent dielectric metasurface with the capability of encoding a grayscale image in real-space based on Malus's law by utilizing the inhomogeneous polarization distribution and realizing the reconstruction of a vectorial holographic image in k-space with the help of the phase profiles of different polarization components of output light is demonstrated. This novel functionality is realized by exploiting the manipulation of polarization and phase of output light simultaneously offered by the dielectric metasurface. The proposed method may enhance the information capability and security level of applications such as the anticounterfeiting and encryption.

Automated summary

The birefringent dielectric metasurface demonstrates the encoding of a grayscale image in real-space and the reconstruction of a vectorial holographic image in k-space, enhancing the information capability and security level through polarization manipulation and phase modulation simultaneously.