Science Daily June 3, 2020
To achieve broad polarization manipulation, multiple birefringent materials need to be stacked one top of another making these devices bulky and inefficient. Researchers at Harvard University used topological optimization to design birefringent materials. They started with the functionality of the metasurface and allowed the algorithm to explore the huge parameter space to develop a pattern that can best deliver that function. The resulting metasurface was composed of nested half circles. The odd shapes have opened a whole new world of birefringence. They can achieve broad polarization manipulations; polarization can be tuned by changing the angle of the incoming light. It has potential applications across industry and scientific research, including polarization aberration correction in advanced optical systems…read more. Open Access TECHNICAL ARTICLEÂ
Concept of arbitrary elliptical birefringence. Credit: Science Advances 03 Jun 2020: Vol. 6, no. 23, eaba3367