Quantitative phase contrast imaging with a nonlocal angle-selective metasurface

Abstract

Phase contrast microscopy has played a central role in the development of modern biology, geology, and nanotechnology. It can visualize the structure of translucent objects that remains hidden in regular optical microscopes. The optical layout of a phase contrast microscope is based on a 4 f image processing setup and has essentially remained unchanged since its invention by Zernike in the early 1930s. Here, we propose a conceptually new approach to phase contrast imaging that harnesses the non-local optical response of a guided-mode-resonator metasurface. We highlight its benefits and demonstrate the imaging of various phase objects, including biological cells, polymeric nanostructures, and transparent metasurfaces. Our results showcase that the addition of this non-local metasurface to a conventional microscope enables quantitative phase contrast imaging with a 0.02π phase accuracy. At a high level, this work adds to the growing body of research aimed at the use of metasurfaces for analog optical computing.

Design Strategies and Applications of Dimensional Optical Field Manipulation Based on Metasurfaces

“…[181,182] Precise measurement of amplitude, phase, polarization state, wavefront, and OAM of optical waves has been well demonstrated in metasurface-based optical devices and systems. [183][184][185][186][187] Predictably, metasurface-integrated photonic devices and systems with novel optical functionalities and various integrated optical functionalities will further expand the application of metasurfaces and promote the development of optics and photonics.…”

Single-shot deterministic complex amplitude imaging with a single-layer metalens

“…Compared to conventional refractive or diffractive optical elements, it can be manufactured by a single-step lithography process and is extremely versatile in manipulating the vectorial light field (19)(20)(21)(22)(23)(24)(25)(26)(27)(28). Recently, metasurfaces (29)(30)(31)(32)(33)(34)(35)(36) and thin-film optical devices (37)(38)(39) with nonlocal (angle-dependent) responses have been investigated for phase visualization and QPI. Most related to this study, a delicately aligned bilayer metasurface has been implemented to construct a quantitative phase gradient microscope (40), which can capture the one-dimensional (1D) phase gradient of the target object in a single shot.…”

Optical Angle Barcodes Enabled by a Pixelated Metasurface for Absolute Micro‐Angle Measurement

“…[30] Furthermore, resonant metasurfaces have been shown to combine angle selectivity, allowing modulation of angle-related amplitude or phase. [31] On the other hand, by altering microstructure characteristics, modular pattern designs allow for the simultaneous manipulation of optical fields at multiple wavelengths in the spatial domain. [32] By assigning different block pattern design to individual pixel, pixelated metasurface has found wide applications in spectral visualization, such as molecular fingerprint identification, spectral imaging, facial recognition, or nano-painting.…”