A reconfigurable arbitrary retarder array as complex structured matter
Abstract
Tuneable retarder arrays, such as spatially patterned liquid crystal devices, have given rise to impressive photonic functionality, fuelling diverse applications ranging from microscopy and holography to encryption and communications. Presently these solutions are limited by the controllable degrees of freedom of structured matter, hindering applications that demand photonic systems with high flexibility and reconfigurable topologies. Here we demonstrate a compound modulator that implements a synthetic tuneable arbitrary retarder array as virtual pixels derived by cascading low functionality tuneable devices, realising full dynamic control of its arbitrary elliptical axis geometry, retardance value, and induced phase. Our approach offers unprecedented functionality that is user-defined and possesses high flexibility, allowing our modulator to act as a new beam generator, analyser, and corrector, opening an exciting path to tuneable topologies of light and matter.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2311.18148,
title = {A reconfigurable arbitrary retarder array as complex structured matter},
author = {Chao He and Binguo Chen and Zipei Song and Zimo Zhao and Yifei Ma and Honghui He and Lin Luo and Tade Marozsak and An Wang and Rui Xu and Peixiang Huang and Jiawen Li and Xuke Qiu and Yunqi Zhang and Bangshan Sun and Jiahe Cui and Yuxi Cai and Yun Zhang and Andong Wang and Mohan Wang and Patrick Salter and Julian AJ Fells and Ben Dai and Shaoxiong Liu and Limei Guo and Yonghong He and Hui Ma and Daniel J Royston and Steve J Elston and Qiwen Zhan and Chengwei Qiu and Stephen M Morris and Martin J Booth and Andrew Forbes},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2311.18148},
year = {2025}
}