Wavefront sensing apparatus, method and applications

1. An optical wavefront sensing apparatus, comprising:

an imaging system;

a polarization rotator disposed at a Fourier plane, or adjacent the Fourier plane at a known position, of an input field having a polarization state incident on the imaging system;

a polarization analyzer disposed between the polarization rotator and an image plane of the system; and

one or more spatially-resolving detectors disposed in the image plane of the input field having a constant zoom factor,

wherein a polarized signal field and an orthogonally polarized reference field can be generated,

further wherein one of the signal field and the reference field has a same polarization as the input field and one of the reference field and the signal field has an orthogonal polarization to that of the input field, and wherein the polarization analyzer comprises waveplates configured to interfere the signal field and reference field to create an interfered, transmitted field, and at least one polarizing beam splitter configured to separate the interfered, transmitted field into orthogonally polarized field components.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the imaging system is a one or a multiple-cascaded 4-f imaging system.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the polarization rotator is a spatial light modulator.

4. The apparatus of claim 3 , wherein the polarization rotator is a birefringent material.

5. The apparatus of claim 3 , wherein the polarization rotator is a plasmonic nano-antenna.

6. The apparatus of claim 3 , wherein the polarization rotator is a dielectric resonant structure.

7. The apparatus of claim 3 , wherein the polarization rotator is a metamaterial.

8. The apparatus of claim 3 , wherein the polarization rotator is a liquid crystal device.

9. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the polarization analyzer comprises at least three polarizers configured such that the transmitted field through the three polarizers will have three different, but known polarization states.

10. The apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising an input field-conditioning spatial light modulator disposed optically upstream of an input of the imaging system.

11. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the polarization analyzer includes two different sets of waveplates configured for creating two different interfered, transmitted fields.

12. The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein a first set of waveplates in the polarization analyzer comprises a half-waveplate, and wherein a second set of waveplates in the polarization analyzer comprises a quarter-waveplate and a half-waveplate.

13. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the polarization rotator is configured to rotate the polarization of the input field by an amount of π/10 or less over an area of the optical field at a known intermediate plane of the imaging system, wherein the area is equal to or less than the diffraction-limited spot size of the field produced by the imaging system at the known intermediate plane.

14. A wavefront sensing method, comprising the steps of:

imaging an input field characterized by a linearly-polarized complex optical field to be measured through an optical imaging system;

creating a reference optical field having a known amplitude and phase profile at the image plane and an orthogonal polarization to that of the input field by rotating the polarization of the input field over an area of the optical field at a known intermediate plane of the imaging system, wherein the area is equal to or less than the diffraction-limited spot size of the field produced by the imaging system at the known intermediate plane;

transmitting the input field and the generated reference field through a polarization analyzer to interfere the orthogonally polarized input field and reference field;

separating the interfered, orthogonally polarized input field and reference field;

generating two pairs of images consisting of field components in two each different polarization states [(I 1 , I 2 ), (I 3 , I 4 )], wherein I 1 and I 2 are orthogonally polarized and I 3 and I 4 are orthogonally polarized, and further wherein any polarization state in any given pair must have equal projection intensity in the two polarization states in any of the two other pairs;

determining a respective spatial resolving quantity for each pair of images [(I 1 , I 2 ), (I 3 , I 4 )]; and

determining an unambiguous phase profile of the input field using the spatial resolving quantity.

15. The method of claim 14 , comprising imaging the input field through one of a 4-f optical imaging system and a multiple-cascaded 4-f optical imaging system.

16. The method of claim 14 , wherein the input field and the generated reference field are transmitted through two different sets of waveplates in the polarization analyzer to create two different interfered, transmitted fields, and wherein each interfered, transmitted field is separated by a polarizing beam splitter to create the two pairs of images consisting of field components in two each different polarization states [(I 1 , I 2 ), (I 3 , I 4 )].

17. The method of claim 16 , wherein a first set of waveplates in the polarization analyzer through which the input field and the generated reference field are transmitted comprises a half-waveplate, and wherein a second set of waveplates in the polarization analyzer through which the input field and the generated reference field are transmitted comprises a quarter-waveplate and a half-waveplate.

18. The method of claim 14 , wherein the polarization of the input field is rotated by an amount of π/10 or less over the area of the optical field equal to or less than the diffraction-limited spot size of the field produced by the imaging system at the known intermediate plane of the imaging system.