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Compact angle-resolved metasurface spectrometer

Nature Materials volume 23, pages 71–78 (2024)Cite this article

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Abstract

Light scattered or radiated from a material carries valuable information on the said material. Such information can be uncovered by measuring the light field at different angles and frequencies. However, this technique typically requires a large optical apparatus, hampering the widespread use of angle-resolved spectroscopy beyond the lab. Here we demonstrate compact angle-resolved spectral imaging by combining a tunable metasurface-based spectrometer array and a metalens. With this approach, even with a miniaturized spectrometer footprint of only 4 × 4 μm2, we demonstrate a wavelength accuracy of 0.17 nm, spectral resolution of 0.4 nm and a linear dynamic range of 149 dB. Moreover, our spectrometer has a detection limit of 1.2 fJ, and can be patterned to an array for spectral imaging. Placing such a spectrometer array directly at the back focal plane of a metalens, we achieve an angular resolution of 4.88 × 10−3 rad. Our angle-resolved spectrometers empowered by metalenses can be employed towards enhancing advanced optical imaging and spectral analysis applications.

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Fig. 1: Design principles for angle-resolved metasurface spectrometers.
Fig. 2: Demonstration of a compact metasurface spectrometer.
Fig. 3: Characterization of microlasers with a compact metasurface spectrometer.
Fig. 4: Array of metasurface spectrometers for spectral imaging.
Fig. 5: Angle-resolved spectral analysis and imaging.

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Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding authors on request.

Code availability

The code that supports the findings of this study is available from the corresponding authors on request.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by National Key Research and Development Program of China (grant nos. 2022YFA1404700 and 2021YFA1400802), National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant nos. 12025402, 12334016, 62125501, 6233000076, 12261131500, 92250302 and 11934012), New Cornerstone Science Foundation through XPLORER PRIZE, Shenzhen Fundamental Research Project (grant nos. JCYJ20210324120402006, JCYJ20220818102218040 and GXWD20220817145518001) and Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (grant no. 2022FRRK030004), Y.K. acknowledges support from the Australian Research Council (grant no. DP210101292).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ministry of Industry and Information Technology Key Lab of Micro-Nano Optoelectronic Information System, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Semiconductor Optoelectronic Materials and Intelligent Photonic Systems, Harbin Institute of Technology, Shenzhen, People’s Republic of China

    Guiyi Cai, Yanhao Li, Yao Zhang, Xiong Jiang, Yimu Chen, Xudong Zhang, Shumin Xiao & Qinghai Song

  2. Pengcheng Laboratory, Shenzhen, People’s Republic of China

    Geyang Qu, Shumin Xiao, Shaohua Yu & Qinghai Song

  3. National Key Laboratory of Science and Technology on Advanced Composites in Special Environments, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, People’s Republic of China

    Shumin Xiao & Jiecai Han

  4. Nonlinear Physics Center, Research School of Physics, Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia

    Yuri Kivshar

  5. Qingdao Innovation and Development Center, Harbin Engineering University, Qingdao, People’s Republic of China

    Yuri Kivshar

  6. Collaborative Innovation Center of Extreme Optics, Shanxi University, Taiyuan, People’s Republic of China

    Qinghai Song

Authors
  1. Guiyi Cai
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Contributions

Q.S., Y.K., S.X. and S.Y. conceived the idea and supervised the research. G.C. and Y.L. did the design. Y.L., Y.Z., X.J., Y.C., X.Z. and S.X. fabricated the samples. G.C., Y.L. and G.Q. performed the experimental measurements. S.X., Y.K., Q.S., J.H. and S.Y. analysed the results. All the authors discussed the contents and prepared the manuscript.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Shumin Xiao, Shaohua Yu, Yuri Kivshar or Qinghai Song.

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Nature Materials thanks Liang Li and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Supplementary Figs. 1–19, Notes 1–8 and discussion.

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Cai, G., Li, Y., Zhang, Y. et al. Compact angle-resolved metasurface spectrometer. Nat. Mater. 23, 71–78 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-023-01710-1

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