Metasurface-enabled single-shot and complete Mueller matrix imaging

When light scatters off an object, its polarization, in general, changes—a transformation described by the object’s Mueller matrix. Mueller matrix imaging is an important technique in science and technology to image the spatially varying polarization response of an object of interest, to reveal rich information otherwise invisible to traditional imaging. Here we conceptualize, implement and demonstrate a compact Mueller matrix imaging system—composed of a metasurface to produce structured polarization illumination and a metasurface for polarization analysis—that can, in a single shot, acquire all 16 components of an object’s spatially varying Mueller matrix over an image. Our implementation, which is free of any moving parts or bulk polarization optics, should enable and empower applications in real-time medical imaging, material characterization, machine vision, target detection and other important areas.