Abstract

Polarizers have always been an important optical component for optical engineering and have played an indispensable part of polarization imaging systems. Metasurface polarizers provide an excellent platform to achieve miniaturization, high resolution, and low cost of polarization imaging systems. Here, we proposed freeform metasurface polarizers derived by adjoint-based inverse design of a full-Jones matrix with gradient-descent optimization. We designed multiple freeform polarizers with different filtered states of polarization (SOPs), including circular polarizers, elliptical polarizers, and linear polarizers that could cover the full Poincaré sphere. Note that near-unitary polarization dichroism and the ultrahigh polarization extinction ratio (ER) reaching 50 dB were achieved for optimized circular polarizers. The multiple freeform polarizers with filtered polarization state locating at four vertices of an inscribed regular tetrahedron of the Poincaré sphere are designed to form a full-Stokes parameters micropolarizer array. Our work provides a novel approach, we believe, for the design of meta-polarizers that may have potential applications in polarization imaging, polarization detection, and communication.

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