Journal: Nature Communications

Article Title: A reconfigurable arbitrary retarder array as complex structured matter

doi: 10.1038/s41467-025-59846-4

Figure Lengend Snippet: a A schematic of a tuneable elliptical (arbitrary) retarder array. The shape and colour of each pillar indicate different retarder axis geometries, while the pillar height corresponds to its retardance value. A vector representation (like the Stokes vector using S , S 2 , and S 3 ) is used to describe the axis geometry. For visualization, we use hue to represent the azimuthal angle \documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$\tan \theta=\frac{{S}_{2}}{{S}_{1}}$$\end{document} tan θ = S 2 S and lightness to indicate the magnitude of \documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$${S}_{3}$$\end{document} S 3 , similar to ref. , . b A tuneable arbitrary retarder array-based device can be formed via reconfigurable pixels, allowing control over axis geometry \documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$\alpha$$\end{document} α , orientation \documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$\beta$$\end{document} β , retardance value \documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$\gamma$$\end{document} γ , and induced phase \documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$\delta$$\end{document} δ , allowing its functionality to be switched on demand. However, these devices do not physically exist. Through this work, the construction of the device is achieved by four cascading low-functionality devices such as SLMs and DM (see Supplementary Method ), hence forming virtual pixels that together act as a synthetic form of reconfigurable structured matter. Note that for all applications conducted in this paper, a precise calibration of such an array must first be performed (see Supplementary Method 2 and Supplementary Note 1, which includes device performance assessment) to achieve accurate pixelated control of arbitrary-to-arbitrary SoP and phase conversion. c Three functions that the arbitrary retarder array can perform: a novel beam generator, beam analyser, and beam corrector. The polarisation ellipses are plotted and coloured according to the magnitude of the last component of the Stokes vector to illustrate the transition from left circular polarisation (LCP) to right circular polarisation (RCP).

Article Snippet: We find that tuneable linear retarder arrays, such as spatial light modulators (SLMs), have a long history, the earliest of which can be traced back to Hamamatsu in the 1980s.

Techniques: Plasmid Preparation, Control