Meta-lenses for differential imaging based on weak measurement

Abstract

All-optical information communication, processing and computation have received substantial interest of both fundamental and applied research due to its unrivaled speed and broad bandwidth. Compared to its electronic counterpart, photons seldom interact with each other which makes them obtain a long coherence time on one hand and relieved from heavy energy dissipation on the other. However, one of the hindrances to achieve all-optical circuits is the large volume of all-optical devices to achieve specific functionalities. In this work, we propose and demonstrate experimentally three meta-lenses for differential imaging employing the framework of weak measurement: (1) partial differential lens, (2) total differential lens and (3) second order differential lens compatible with the requirement of miniaturization to achieve all-optical technology. Based on Fresnel-lens-like structures, our meta-lenses incorporated the previous weak-measurement compartment into wavelength scale, which induces a miniature differential operation system as a result. In addition to its potential importance in heavily integrated all-optical neural networks, the differential lens can be easily incorporated in the existing imaging systems like a conventional lens without increasing the complexity of the system of interest.