All-optical polarization encoding and modulation by nonlinear interferometry at the nanoscale

Yigong Luan; Attilio Zilli; Agostino Di Francescantonio; Vincent Vinel; Paolo Biagioni; Lamberto Duò; Aristide Lemaître; Giuseppe Leo; Michele Celebrano; Marco Finazzi

doi:10.1038/s41377-025-01948-1

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All-optical polarization encoding and modulation by nonlinear interferometry at the nanoscale

Original Articles

- All-optical polarization encoding and modulation by nonlinear interferometry at the nanoscale
- Light: Science & Applications Vol. 14, Issue 11, Pages: 3471-3478(2025)
- Affiliations：
  
  1.Department of Physics, Politecnico di Milano, 20133 Milan, Italy
  2.Université de Paris, CNRS, Laboratoire Matériaux et Phénomènes Quantiques, 75013 Paris, France
  3.Université Paris-Saclay, CNRS, Centre de Nanosciences et de Nanotechnologies, 91120 Palaiseau, France
- Author bio：
  
  Michele Celebrano (michele.celebrano@polimi.it)
  Marco Finazzi (marco.finazzi@polimi.it)
- Funds：
- DOI：10.1038/s41377-025-01948-1
  CLC：
- Received：31 December 2024，
  
  Revised：2025-06-15，
  
  Accepted：30 June 2025，
  
  Published Online：15 September 2025，
  
  Published：30 November 2025
- Accepted：
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Luan, Y. G. et al. All-optical polarization encoding and modulation by nonlinear interferometry at the nanoscale. Light: Science & Applications, 14, 3471-3478 (2025).
DOI：

Luan, Y. G. et al. All-optical polarization encoding and modulation by nonlinear interferometry at the nanoscale. Light: Science & Applications, 14, 3471-3478 (2025). DOI： 10.1038/s41377-025-01948-1.

摘要

Abstract

Optical metasurfaces allow complex light manipulation within subwavelength thicknesses and are thus rapidly emerging as a key enabling technology for nanophotonics applications. The control over light polarization already provided a route towards ultracompact metasurface-based polarimetry devices. If translated to the nonlinear optical regime it may become a transformative tool for nonlinear imaging

optical holography

and sensing. Here

we report ultrafast all-optical polarization modulation of upconverted light by all-dielectric metasurfaces via nonlinear interferometry. By controlling the relative phase between a pump beam at

and its frequency-doubled replica at 2

we can set the phase relation between two frequency-degenerate upconversion processes at 3

– sum-frequency generation and third-harmonic generation – stemming from an AlGaAs metasurface. By leveraging the opposite parity of the two nonlinear processes and adjusting their relative intensities

we achieve a modulation of the polarization state of the upconverted light between linear and circular states with a circular polarization degree of up to 83%. Remarkably

circularly polarized light of opposite handedness is symmetrically mapped in the Fourier space

at coincidence with the first diffraction orders of the metasurface. Furthermore

the handedness can be completely reversed within the same diffraction order by applying a phase delay of π. Our work adds an additional modulation layer beyond intensity to all-optical routing with precise phase control: polarization. The capability to encode and modulate simultaneously different polarization states in the

-space holds potential for chiral sensing and advanced imaging techniques.

关键词

Keywords

references

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