A reconfigurable arbitrary retarder array as complex structured matter
Tuneable retarder arrays, such as spatially patterned liquid crystal devices, have given rise to impressive photonic functionality, fuelling diverse applications ranging from microscopy and holography to encryption and communications. Presently these solutions are limited by the controllable degrees of freedom of structured matter, hindering applications that demand photonic systems with high flexibility and reconfigurable topologies. Here we demonstrate a compound modulator that implements a synthetic tuneable arbitrary retarder array as virtual pixels derived by cascading low functionality tuneable devices, realising full dynamic control of its arbitrary elliptical axis geometry, retardance value, and induced phase. Our approach offers unprecedented functionality that is user-defined and possesses high flexibility, allowing our modulator to act as a new beam generator, analyser, and corrector, opening an exciting path to tuneable topologies of light and matter.
Authors
- Zimo Zhao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8390-2699)
- Mohan Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6678-4993)
- Binguo Chen
- Limei Guo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0430-2914)
- Daniel Royston (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5151-2378)
- Ben Dai (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1620-1021)
- Yuxi Cai (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0002-6538-3463)
- Zipei Song (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0003-9345-0739)
- Patrick S. Salter (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1688-259X)
- Bangshan Sun (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2628-2101)
- Jiahe Cui (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2122-5754)
- Andrew Forbes (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2552-5586)
- Stephen Morris (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8294-9225)
- Chao He (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9654-830X)
- Shaoxiong Liu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0005-7398-5431)
- Honghui He (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7369-7433)
- Steve J. Elston (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2719-539X)
- Qiwen Zhan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8745-4213)
- Julian Fells (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0644-6156)
- Yifei Ma (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0521-5687)
- Martin J. Booth (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9525-8981)
- An Aloysius Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1845-3537)
- Cheng‐Wei Qiu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6605-500X)
- Jiawen Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3950-6212)
- Yun Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9464-1751)
- Hui Ma (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9662-0447)
- Rui Xu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0371-5928)
- Yonghong He (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9964-8901)
- Andong Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7760-0755)
- Lin Luo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5752-329X)
- Ying Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9900-7568)
- Tádé Marozsák (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0008-4144-3920)
- Peixiang Huang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0004-1420-9355)
- Xuke Qiu
Institutions
- University of Shanghai for Science and Technology (CN)
- National University of Singapore (SG)
- Chinese University of Hong Kong (HK)
- University of the Witwatersrand (ZA)
- Peking University (CN)
- University of Oxford (GB)
- Shenzhen Sixth People's Hospital (CN)
- Chinese Academy of Cultural Heritage (CN)
- Tsinghua–Berkeley Shenzhen Institute (CN)
- Peking University Third Hospital (CN)
- Science Oxford (GB)
- Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust (GB)
- Tsinghua University (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Nature Communications
- Published
- 2025-05-27
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-59846-4
- Citations
- 11
- Primary Topic
- Optical Polarization and Ellipsometry
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 7.42
Funders
- University of Oxford
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council