Diffraction order-engineered polarization-dependent silicon nano-antennas metagrating for compact subtissue Mueller...

Area of Science:

• Photonics and Nanotechnology
• Biomedical Optics
• Materials Science

Background:

• Polarization-dependent optical elements are crucial for advanced imaging.
• Metagratings offer precise control over light polarization.
• Compact Mueller microscopy systems are needed for in-situ diagnostics.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose and demonstrate a polarization-dependent silicon nano-antennas metagrating (PSNM).
• To implement a compact Mueller microscopy system for subtissue-level polarization extraction.
• To facilitate stain-free differentiation and staging of pathological tissues.

Main Methods:

• Designing a PSNM using matrix Fourier optics and nonlinear optimization.
• Encoding polarization transformation using nano-antennas with geometric and propagation phases.
• Integrating the PSNM into a transmissive Mueller microscopy system.

Main Results:

• Achieved high diffraction efficiency (70.89%) with minimal deviation from design values (<6.7%).
• Successfully extracted subtissue-level polarization distributions over a 152 μm × 152 μm field of view.
• Demonstrated reduced measurement redundancy in polarization analysis.

Conclusions:

• The developed PSNM enables efficient parallel polarization transformation.
• The compact Mueller microscopy system offers high-resolution polarization imaging of biological samples.
• This technology holds potential for stain-free pathological diagnostics.