Meta-grating-lens–based monolithic polarization camera

Polarization imaging has the powerful ability to detect unique features invisible to human eyes, which is challenging for conventional intensity imaging systems. Metasurface emerges as a transformative platform for compact polarization imaging systems, but prior strategies suffer from limited imaging field-of-view (FOV) and coarse-grained polarization pixels. Here, we demonstrate a meta-grating-lens (MGL)-based monolithic polarization camera achieving 14° FOV and real-time full-Stokes polarization imaging in the near-infrared region. The optimized MGL exhibits >60% focusing efficiency with <3% zeroth-order noise, enabling simultaneous polarization analysis, beam-splitting, and imaging functionalities in a fine-grained pixel level. This synergistic design enables both efficient light utilization and accurate polarization reconstruction. The proposed polarization camera has the potential to unlock wide range of applications including autonomous navigation, biomedical diagnostics, and even compact Muller matrix imaging systems.