Polarization Distortion and Compensation of Circularly Polarized Emission from Chiral Metasurfaces

Abstract

Circularly polarized (CP) emission can be achieved by integrating emissive materials into chiral metasurfaces. Such CP light sources in integrated device platforms are desirable for important potential applications. However, the exact characterization of the polarization state in CP emission may include some errors because of the unwanted polarization distortion caused by optical components (e.g., beam splitter) in the optical setup. Here, we consider CP emission measurements from chiral metasurfaces and characterize the polarization distortion caused by the beam splitter. We first detail the procedures for the Stokes parameters and Mueller matrix measurements. Then, we directly measure the Mueller matrix of the beam splitter and retrieve the original polarization state of CP emission from our metasurface sample. Using the measured Mueller matrix of the beam splitter, we specifically identify what contributes to polarization distortion in CP emission. Our work may provide useful guidelines for the characterization and compensation of polarization distortion in general Stokes parameter measurements.