Chinese Optics Letters, Volume. 23, Issue 10, (2025)
Dual-Mode Liquid-Crystal Element for Polarization Imaging with Extended Depth of Field [Early Posting]
Extended depth-of-field (DoF) imaging enhances longitudinal clarity but traditionally fails to record polarization information. Here, we propose a liquid-crystal Pancharatnam-Berry (PB) phase element that extends DoF while sensing polarization ellipticity. Leveraging cubic phase-induced defocus-insensitive point spread functions, a 10 cm DoF is achieved in a 10 cm-focal-length 4f system. Linear PB phases enable spin-orbit interactions to detect polarization states, overcoming irreversible polarization loss in conventional methods. This dual-functionality system integrates DoF extension with polarization sensing, enhancing multidimensional imaging capabilities and holding promise for advancing machine vision, autonomous vehicles, and optical detection by merging depth clarity with polarization-based object differentiation.