Geometrical Phase Optical Components: Measuring Geometric Phase without Interferometry

Abstract

Optical components that are based on Pancharatnam–Berry phase feature a polarization-dependent diffraction that can be used to fabricate lenses and gratings with unique properties. In recent years, the great progress made in the fabrication of the metasurfaces that are required for these optical components has lowered their cost and has made them widely available. One of the often-overlooked properties of optical components based on geometrical phases (GPs) is that, contrary to dynamical phases, their phase can be measured while using a polarimetric technique without the need to resort to interferometry methods. This is possible because the Pancharatnam–Berry phase is not controlled by an optical path difference; it results from a space variant polarization manipulation. In this work, we apply Mueller matrix microscopy in order to measure the geometrical phase of GP lenses and polarization gratings. We show that a single space resolved Mueller matrix measurement with micrometric resolution is enough to obtain a full characterization phase-profile of these GP-based optical components and evaluate their performance.

Keywords

• geometric phase
• structured light
• polarimetry