The present disclosure relates to imaging. More particularly, it relates to incoherent holographic imaging with metasurfaces.
The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated into and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate one or more embodiments of the present disclosure and, together with the description of example embodiments, serve to explain the principles and implementations of the disclosure.
In a first aspect of the disclosure, a device is described, the device comprising: a birefringent metasurface lens, comprising an array of nanoposts configured to focus incident electromagnetic waves of a first polarization to a first focal length, and incident electromagnetic waves of a second polarization to a second focal length; a variable phase retarder between the birefringent metasurface lens and a camera, the variable phase retarder configured to vary a phase difference between the electromagnetic waves of the first polarization and the electromagnetic waves of the second polarization; and a polarizer between the variable phase retarder and the camera.
In a second aspect of the disclosure, a method is described, the method comprising: providing a birefringent metasurface lens comprising an array of nanoposts; providing a variable phase retarder between the birefringent metasurface lens and a camera; providing a polarizer between the variable phase retarder and the camera; focusing electromagnetic waves of a first polarization, from an object to be imaged and incident on the birefringent metasurface lens, to a first focal length, and electromagnetic waves of a second polarization, from the object and incident on the birefringent metasurface lens, to a second focal length; varying, by the variable phase retarder, a phase difference between the electromagnetic waves of the first polarization and the electromagnetic waves of the second polarization; capturing, by the camera, a plurality of interference patterns for a plurality of phase differences between the electromagnetic waves of the first polarization and the electromagnetic waves of the second polarization, wherein each interference pattern of the plurality of interference patterns corresponds to a phase difference of the plurality of phase differences; and generating a hologram from the plurality of interference patterns.
In a third aspect of the disclosure, a device is described, the device comprising: a birefringent metasurface, comprising an array of nanoposts configured to scatter incident electromagnetic waves of a first polarization with a first phase profile, and incident electromagnetic waves of a second polarization with a second phase profile; a variable phase retarder between the birefringent metasurface and a camera, the variable phase retarder configured to vary a phase difference between the electromagnetic waves of the first polarization and the electromagnetic waves of the second polarization; and a polarizer between the variable phase retarder and the camera.
The present disclosure describes incoherent holographic imaging using a single birefringent metasurface lens. The imaging technique described in the present disclosure overcomes the monochromatic and chromatic aberration challenges of imaging with diffractive lenses, and results in high quality imaging with a wide field of view and wide bandwidth. The technique is based on forming interference patterns of each point of an object, using a birefringent lens with two different focal distances for two different polarizations of light (linear, circular, or elliptical). Using a variable wave plate, it is possible to form a complex hologram containing the phase and amplitude data of the object. In addition to correcting the imaging aberrations, this method can be used for post-capture refocusing of the image, through changing the reconstruction distance in the algorithm used for recovering the image from the hologram.
A basic way to image an object is by using the focus of a single lens, for example a magnifying glass. The drawback of this basic technique is that magnifying lenses have higher distortion the further away the image is from the center of the lens. This undesirable effect is remedied by using a cascade of several glass lenses, for example in a camera zoom setup. Due to the considerable bulk from a cascade of glass lenses, a question of interest is whether or not imaging can be achieved using a smaller system. Metasurface phase masks are a potential solution to this problem. These devices, typically no larger than a coin, consist of millions to billions of high refractive index nanoposts. By arranging the nanoposts in a particular manner, it is possible to produce high efficiency lenses with large numerical apertures and a much more precise focal length compared to a glass lens.
As known to the person of ordinary skill in the art, metasurface lenses, due to their diffractive nature, can suffer from off-axis distortions and chromatic aberrations. The present disclosure solves these issues based on holography, a method for three dimensional (3D) imaging. In holography, an interference pattern, formed by a reference beam and an object beam, is recorded on an electronic light sensor, for example a charge coupled device (CCD). These two waves are usually required to travel the same distance and originate from the same source, in order to obtain proper interference. The 3D image can then be ‘reconstructed’ by illuminating the interference pattern with the reference beam. This process can also be performed digitally using a computer, which is the method used in the present disclosure.
The exemplary holographic system used in the present disclosure is based on Fresnel incoherent correlation holography (FINCH), a holographic technique which is known to the person of ordinary skill in the art, and is described, for example, in Refs. [6,7]. The main difference, compared to the FINCH technique, is that the system used in the present disclosure has only one birefringent metasurface lens (205), as shown for example in
As illustrated in
In some embodiments, a metasurface lens has a diameter of 800 μm, and focal lengths of f1=1.25 mm and f2=1.75 mm for the two orthogonal linear polarizations. The distance between the lens and the CCD is set to 1.5 mm, necessary in this example to have a zero chromatic dispersion, based on the values of the two focal distances. The center wavelength of the incident light is λ0=850 nm. The choice of these parameters is for this specific design, and can be readily generalized to other wavelengths, ranging from radio frequencies to visible and ultraviolet electromagnetic waves (UV), other lens sizes, and other focal distances for the two polarizations. The setup for this example is illustrated in
With a point source at r0=(x0,y0,−z0) in front of a birefringent lens, with focal lengths f1 and f2 for x and y polarized light, there will be two resultant fields at the CCD plane. The two fields correspond to the two polarizations, and can be termed u1 and u2. By placing a variable wave plate to delay y-polarized light by a phase ϕn, and a polarizer at 45° between the lens and the CCD, it is possible to combine the two waves, resulting in an interference intensity pattern on the CCD. The interference pattern can be described as:
I
n(x′,y′)=|u1(x′,y′)+eiϕ
where x′ and y′ denote the coordinates on the CCD plane, as shown in
As the phase delay of the wave plate is changed, the interference pattern corresponding to each phase delay can be captured. For instance, it is possible to set
for n=1,2,3. Three typical simulated interference patterns are shown in
I
H(x′,y′)=I1(eiϕ
A variety of methods can be applied for reconstructing the actual image from IH(x′,y′). The first method introduced here is based on calculating the correlation of IH with the complex, point spread function resulting from a point source at r=(x,y,−z0), which is defined as IP(x′,y′;x,y,z0). In this manner, the estimated object intensity Î(x,y,z0) can be calculated through the following correlation integral:
Î(x,y,z0)=∫IH(x′,y′)I*P(x′,y′;x,y,z0)dx′dy′
To reduce the computational costs of the reconstruction algorithm, it can be assumed that the system is approximately shift invariant over small patches around a point r0=(x0,y0,−z0), and thus it is possible to write:
I
P(x′,y′;x,y,z0)≈IP(x′−x,y′−y;x,y,z0), (x,y) close to (x0,y0)
The specific definition for “close to” can be used as a parameter determining the degree of approximation. The larger the patch, the less number of point spread function calculations is required for the reconstruction. Using this approximation, the estimated intensity in the patch can be written as:
Î(x,y,z0)=∫IH(x′,y′)I*P(x′−x,y′−y;z0)dx′dy′
This correlation calculation can also be carried out in the spectral domain (kx,ky) using the Fourier transform of I*P. The second method described herein applies a Wiener filter for the reconstruction. Assuming that the point spread function is shift invariant in a small patch, a spectral domain filter can be calculated, for that patch, by Fourier transforming IP(x=x′−x0,y=y′−y0;z0), which is referred to as HP(kx,ky;x0,y0,z0). It can be noted that the transfer function is also a function of (x0,y0), the “center” coordinate of the patch. It is possible to find the corresponding Wiener function through HW=H*P/(|HP|2+N), where N is an estimated noise power. In each patch, the reconstructed image can then be formed through Î(x,y,z0)=F−1{HW·iH}, where iH(kx,ky)=F{IH(x′,y′)}, and F{·} denotes the Fourier transformation operator. As demonstrated in the following, if the image plane is divided into a large enough number of patches, the reconstructed image will have good quality throughout the image.
The methods of the present disclosure can correct monochromatic and chromatic aberrations of diffractive imaging systems.
As a second example,
While both systems form a good quality image at the center (panels c-d), at the corner (panels e-f) the regular diffractive lens image (panel e) is significantly blurred. By contrast, the holographic system forms a sharp image with low aberrations in the corners as well. The high frequency noise seen in the reconstructed holographic image is a result of the forward hologram formation method. Since different points on the object should be incoherent light sources, to form the hologram random phases were assigned to each point on the object, and averaged over a large number of images with different phases. Since the noise dies off at a 1/√{square root over (M)} rate (M being the number of images with different phases averaged), it is not negligible even for relatively large averages. It should be noted, however, that since the hologram formation is done automatically in the measurements, this type of noise will not be present in actual measurements.
Three interference patterns of a point source formed by the fabricated birefringent lens for three different phases are shown in
The structure and methods described in the present disclosure can be utilized in other configurations as well. For instance, if the lens is corrected to image a plane of finite distance (i.e. working distance) to two different planes for the different polarizations, the structure can be used in the configurations shown in
The structure and methods of the present disclosure are not limited to using a diffractive lens with two different focal distances for two polarizations. The concept can be generalized to using other diffractive metasurface devices, with different phase profiles for the two polarizations. In general, the metasurfaces of the present disclosure can implement any two phase profiles for the two incident polarizations, as long as the corresponding field distributions on the image sensor are approximately complex conjugates of each other, i.e., u1≈u*2. This condition ensures that the interference intensities I1, I2, and I3 (as defined above in the present disclosure) are non-dispersive and do not change significantly with the wavelength. This condition in turn ensures the wideband operation of the technique and of the device, and allows overcoming the limitations caused by chromatic dispersion.
In some embodiments, the nanoposts of the present disclosure are asymmetric, for example having rectangular or elliptical cross section, and have lateral dimensions and a height of less than one micrometer. In some embodiments, the first focal length is shorter than a distance between the birefringent metasurface lens and the camera, and the second focal length is longer than a distance between the birefringent metasurface lens and the camera.
The examples set forth above are provided to those of ordinary skill in the art as a complete disclosure and description of how to make and use the embodiments of the disclosure, and are not intended to limit the scope of what the inventor/inventors regard as their disclosure.
Modifications of the above-described modes for carrying out the methods and systems herein disclosed that are obvious to persons of skill in the art are intended to be within the scope of the following claims. All patents and publications mentioned in the specification are indicative of the levels of skill of those skilled in the art to which the disclosure pertains. All references cited in this disclosure are incorporated by reference to the same extent as if each reference had been incorporated by reference in its entirety individually.
It is to be understood that the disclosure is not limited to particular methods or systems, which can, of course, vary. It is also to be understood that the terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only, and is not intended to be limiting. As used in this specification and the appended claims, the singular forms “a,” “an,” and “the” include plural referents unless the content clearly dictates otherwise. The term “plurality” includes two or more referents unless the content clearly dictates otherwise. Unless defined otherwise, all technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which the disclosure pertains.
The references in the present application, shown in the reference list below, are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.
The present application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 62/572,736, filed on Oct. 16, 2017, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
This invention was made with government support under grant 1512266 awarded by the National Science Foundation. The government has certain rights in the invention.
Number | Date | Country | |
---|---|---|---|
62572736 | Oct 2017 | US |