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Metasurface optical characterization using quadriwave lateral shearing interferometry

Optics 2024-11-04 v1 Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics

Abstract

An optical metasurface consists of a dense and usually non-uniform layer of scattering nanostructures behaving as a continuous and extremely thin optical component, with predefined phase and intensity transmission/reflection profiles. To date, various sorts of metasurfaces (metallic, dielectric, Huygens-like, Pancharatman-Berry, etc.) have been introduced to design ultrathin lenses, beam deflectors, holograms, or polarizing interfaces. Their actual efficiencies depend on the ability to predict their optical properties and to fabricate non-uniform assemblies of billions of nanoscale structures on macroscopic surfaces. To further help improve the design of metasurfaces, precise and versatile post-characterization techniques need to be developed. Today, most of the techniques used to characterize metasurfaces rely on light intensity measurements. Here, we demonstrate how quadriwave lateral shearing interferometry (QLSI), a quantitative phase microscopy technique, can easily achieve full optical characterization of metasurfaces of any kind, as it can probe the local phase imparted by a metasurface with high sensitivity and spatial resolution. As a means to illustrate the versatility of this technique, we present measurements on two types of metasurfaces, namely Pancharatnam-Berry and effective-refractive-index metasurfaces, and present results on uniform metasurfaces, metalenses and deflectors.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2008.11369,
  title  = {Metasurface optical characterization using quadriwave lateral shearing interferometry},
  author = {Samira Khadir and Daniel Andrén and Ruggero Verre and Qinghua Song and Serge Monneret and Patrice Genevet and Mikael Käll and Guillaume Baffou},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2008.11369},
  year   = {2024}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-23T18:06:27.379Z