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Communications Physics

All-optical polarization-filtered subwavelength imaging in microwave regime via atom-based polarization holography

Ziyao Lyu, Tao Dong, Yijie Du, Hong Chen, Changshun Wang

Published Apr 19, 2025• 1 citation
Publisher

Abstract

Polarization imaging is essential to reveal rich information of the vectorial nature of microwaves. However, selective imaging of specific polarization components with subwavelength resolution remains challenging. Here, we propose atom-based polarization holography for all-optical polarization-filtered subwavelength imaging in microwave regime. A kind of atomic polarization holograms is recorded through two-photon excited anisotropy in a four-level quantum system and its diffraction properties are characterized using Jones theory combined with optical Bloch equation. It is found that the polarization information of microwaves can be actively manipulated to holographic diffracted light fields. Moreover, polarization imaging of atom-based polarization holography with a spatial resolution of one-fortieth wavelength (λ/40) has been realized experimentally through microwave-to-optical conversion. The function of polarization filtering is demonstrated by optical holographic diffraction and the microwave component with specific polarization state can be selectively imaged from superimposed polarized microwaves. Our work is expected to enable applications in polarization filtering and subwavelength imaging. Polarization imaging reveals vectorial nature of microwaves, but selective imaging of specific polarization components with subwavelength resolution remains challenging. The authors propose atom-based polarization holography to optically filter microwave polarizations from complex mixed signals via holographic diffraction, achieving λ/40 imaging resolution.

DOI
10.1038/s42005-025-02096-z

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Sub-micrometer light patterns play a pivotal role in biology, biophysics, and AMO physics, yet their in situ characterization is limited in spatial resolution and sensitivity. Here, we present an atom camera with a single ultracold atom in an optical tweezer as a scanning probe. Measuring the energy shift on the spin states with the long coherence time and polarization-sensitive transitions yields highly sensitive, high-resolution 2D imaging of both intensity and polarization ellipticity. We characterize the polarization of a tightly-focused beam, observing its non-trivial profile. The spatial resolution is fundamentally limited by the atom’s position uncertainty, suppressed down to quantum fluctuations (~25 nm) in the motional ground state of the tweezer, with an experimentally obtained upper bound of σ ≤ 96(4) nm. This method enables imaging beyond the diffraction limit, surpassing previous approaches limited by thermal fluctuations of the atom, and provides a powerful tool for designing and analyzing submicron-scale light patterns. In situ super-resolution imaging of light has inherent limitations when applied to the polarization profile. Here, the authors introduce an “atom camera” approach by means of a single tweezer-trapped 87Rb atom measuring the field-induced shifts at sub-micrometer steps, achieving resolution beyond the optical diffraction limit.