Measured response of a synthetic dipole generated in a photonic integrated circuit

Light from a dipole source (e.g., a single molecule) has long been known to possess a spatially varying polarization state, but no current method exists to emulate this response. Simulations of an engineered scattering element in a photonic integrated circuit have demonstrated the concept of a synthetic dipole. Through the AIM Photonics Foundry, photonic integrated circuits with synthetic dipoles were fabricated and characterized under a custom SWIR microscope setup. The polarization response of designed transverse dipoles was characterized using quantitative imaging and rotating quarter-wave plate polarimetry.