Progress of polarization-information detection technology based on manipulations of metasurface

Polarization is an inherent property of light. By deconstructing the relation between the incident and transmitting polarization states, the crucial information about the composition and structure of the interacting materials can be obtained, and thus polarization information shows high research value and application potential. In recent years, research areas, such as polarization imaging and polarization information, are flourishing and attracting wide attention of scholars all over the world. A key of these research fields is the acquisition of polarization information with high efficiency. However, conventional methods for acquisition of polarization information have various shortcomings, restricting the development of polarization information. Metasurface technology provides people with an opportunity to artificially change the phase, amplitude and polarization of light wave, with characteristics of miniaturization and integration. Firstly the polarization-information acquisition and the circular-polarization detector based on Archimedes spiral structure were introduced. Then the progress of polarization-information acquisition based on metasurface in recent years, including metal metasurface polarization detector, all-dielectric metasurface polarization detector, and polarization imagings was summarized. At last, the research status and development trend of the polarization-information acquisition technology based on metasurface were discussed.