Journal Article

Monocular metasurface camera for passive single-shot 4D imaging

Shen, Zicheng, Jin, Chunqi, Wang, Shuai, Yang, Yuanmu, Zhao, Feng, Cao, Liangcai

2023

Overview

It is a grand challenge for an imaging system to simultaneously obtain multi-dimensional light field information, such as depth and polarization, of a scene for the accurate perception of the physical world. However, such a task would conventionally require bulky optical components, time-domain multiplexing, and active laser illumination. Here, we experimentally demonstrate a compact monocular camera equipped with a single-layer metalens that can capture a 4D image, including 2D all-in-focus intensity, depth, and polarization of a target scene in a single shot under ambient illumination conditions. The metalens is optimized to have a conjugate pair of polarization-decoupled rotating single-helix point-spread functions that are strongly dependent on the depth of the target object. Combined with a straightforward, physically interpretable image retrieval algorithm, the camera can simultaneously perform high-accuracy depth sensing and high-fidelity polarization imaging over an extended depth of field for both static and dynamic scenes in both indoor and outdoor environments. Such a compact multi-dimensional imaging system could enable new applications in diverse areas ranging from machine vision to microscopy. The authors present a monocular camera equipped with a single-layer metalens for passive single-shot 4D imaging. It can simultaneously perform high-accuracy depth sensing and highfidelity polarization imaging over an extended depth of field.

• Publisher: Nature Publishing Group UK,Nature Publishing Group,Nature Portfolio
• Subject: 142/126 / 639/624/1107/510 / 639/624/399/1015 / 639/624/400/1021 / Algorithms / Cameras / Depth of field / Humanities and Social Sciences / Illumination / Image retrieval / Imaging / Indoor environments / Machine vision / multidisciplinary / Multiplexing / Optical components / Point spread functions / Polarization / Science / Science (multidisciplinary)