Abstract Edge‐enhanced imaging and polarization detection are critical for computer vision and biomedicine by enabling geometric feature extraction and object characterization. Conventional implementations, however, rely on bulky optics and complex systems, hindering miniaturization and integration. This work reports that a sub‐micrometer‐thick metasurface can simultaneously achieve bifocal bright‐field/edge‐enhanced imaging and polarization detection. The design incorporates a spiral phase to modulate the spectrum plane, while a lens phase performs an inverse Fourier transform on the spectrum plane to achieve edge‐enhanced imaging. Meanwhile, through strategically arranging three polarization multiplexing units, full Stokes polarization parameters are captured in single‐shot imaging. This sub‐micrometer multifunctional metasurface eliminates complex optics and post‐processing, paving the way for compact and integrated optical systems.
Zhou et al. (Thu,) studied this question.