Laplace metasurfaces for optical analog computing based on quasi-bound states in the continuum

Laplace operation,the isotropic second-order differentiation,on spatial functions is an essential mathematical calculation in most physical equations and signal processing.Realizing the Laplace operation in a manner of optical analog computing has recently attracted attention,but a compact device with a high spatial resolution is still elusive.Here,we introduce a Laplace metasurface that can perform the Laplace operation for incident lightfield patterns.By exciting the quasi-bound state in the continuum,an optical transfer function for nearly perfect isotropic second-order differentiation has been obtained with a spatial resolution of wavelength scale.Such a Laplace metasurface has been numerically validated with both 1D and 2D spatial functions,and the results agree well with that of the ideal Laplace operation.In addition,the edge detection of a concerned object in an image has been demonstrated with the Laplace metasurface.Our results pave the way to the applications of metasurfaces in optical analog computing and image processing.

A review of dielectric optical metasurfaces for spatial differentiation and edge detection

Dielectric metasurfaces-based planar optical spatial differentiator and edge detection have recently been proposed to play an important role in the parallel and fast image processing technology.With the development of dielectric metasurfaces of different geometries and resonance mechanisms,diverse on-chip spatial differentiators have been proposed by tailoring the dispersion characteristics of subwavelength structures.This review focuses on the basic principles and characteristic parameters of dielectric metasurfaces as first-and second-order spatial differentiators realized via the Green's function approach.The spatial bandwidth and polarization dependence are emphasized as key properties by comparing the optical transfer flinctions of metasurfaces for different incident wavevectors and polarizations.To present the operational capabilities of a two-dimensional spatial differentiator in image information acquisition,edge detection is described to illustrate the practicability of the device.As an application example,experimental demonstrations of edge detection for different biological cells and a flower mold are discussed,in which a spatial differentiator and objective lens or camera are integrated in three optical pathway configurations.The realization of spatial differentiators and edge detection with dielectric metasurfaces provides new opportunities for ultrafast information identification in biological imaging and machine vision.