Vortex beams accompanied with orbital angular momentum have attracted significant attention in research fields due to their formidable capabilities in various crucial applications. However, conventional devices for generating vortex beams still suffer from bulky sizes, high cost, and confined performances. Metalens, as an advanced platform to arbitrarily control the optical waves, has promising prospects to address the predicament for conventional devices. Although great progress has been demonstrated in the applications of vortex beams, they are still confronted with fixed functionality after fabrication that severely hinders their application range. In this work, the phase-change material of Ge₂Sb₂Te₅ (GST) is employed to design the meta-atoms to realize tunable optical responses. Moreover, the focused vortex beam can be accomplished by superimposing a helical phase and hyperbolic phase, and the chromatic aberrations in near-infrared (NIR) range can be corrected by introducing an additional phase compensation. And the design strategy is validated by two different metalenses (BAMTF-1 and BAMTF-2). The numerical results indicate that the chromatic aberrations for two metalens can be corrected in 1.33–1.60 μm covering the telecom range. Moreover, the average focusing efficiency of BAMTF-1 is 51.4%, and that of BAMTF-2 is 39.9%, indicating the favorable performances of designed BAMTF. More importantly, their average focal lengths have a relative tuning range of 38.82% and 33.17% by altering the crystallization ratio of GST, respectively. This work may provide a significant scheme for on-chip and tunable devices for NIR imaging and communication systems.

Traditional facial recognition is realized by facial recognition algorithms based on 2D or 3D digital images and has been well developed and has found wide applications in areas related to identification verification. In this work, we propose a novel live face detection (LFD) method by utilizing snapshot spectral imaging technology, which takes advantage of the distinctive reflected spectra from human faces. By employing a computational spectral reconstruction algorithm based on Tikhonov regularization, a rapid and precise spectral reconstruction with a fidelity of over 99% for the color checkers and various types of “face” samples has been achieved. The flat face areas were extracted exactly from the “face” images with Dlib face detection and Euclidean distance selection algorithms. A large quantity of spectra were rapidly reconstructed from the selected areas and compiled into an extensive database. The convolutional neural network model trained on this database demonstrates an excellent capability for predicting different types of “faces” with an accuracy exceeding 98%, and, according to a series of evaluations, the system’s detection time consistently remained under one second, much faster than other spectral imaging LFD methods. Moreover, a pixel-level liveness detection test system is developed and a LFD experiment shows good agreement with theoretical results, which demonstrates the potential of our method to be applied in other recognition fields. The superior performance and compatibility of our method provide an alternative solution for accurate, highly integrated video LFD applications.

Non-invasive near-infrared (NIR) human glucose sensors have attracted great interest in managing diabetes mellitus and those with complex sensing backgrounds due to glucose absorption spectrum overlap. Here, we propose a non-invasive and highly accurate multi-wavelength light NIR glucose sensor using a multilevel metric learning-back propagation network, i.e., “HMML-BP”, based on the narrowband multi-wavelength light NIR system. Our human glucose sensing method combines the advantages of this system and an HMML-BP network. The latter is composed of multilevel metric learning modules and a BP network to predict blood glucose concentrations. The narrowband multi-wavelength light NIR sensing system consists of six-channel NIR filters with center wavelengths of 850 nm, 940 nm, 1300 nm, 1400 nm, 1550 nm, and 1650 nm and a spectral resolution below 12 nm. The six NIR channels measured were first entered into the MML modules to build 3D multi-wavelength light data. Next, 3D multi-wavelength light data were optimized by stochastic neighbor embedding. Diffusion maps and factor analysis algorithms were used to retain effective NIR information. Finally, the optimized data were utilized as the BP network input to predict blood glucose concentrations. The predicted results showed that the factor analysis algorithm had the best performance in our HMML-BP network and that all the predicted glucose values fell into region A, with a mean absolute relative difference of 9.98%, meeting the requirements of daily glucose monitoring. Our blood glucose sensing method provides a new way of utilizing multi-wavelength light and hyperspectral information for smart human glucose monitoring.

The integration of a pixelated Fabry–Pérot filter array onto the image sensor enables on-chip snapshot multispectral imaging, significantly reducing the size and weight of conventional spectral imaging equipment. However, a traditional Fabry–Pérot cavity, based on metallic or dielectric layers, exhibits a narrow bandwidth, which restricts their utility in broader applications. In this work, we propose novel Fabry–Pérot filter structures that employ dielectric thin films for phase modulation, enabling single-peak filtering across a broad operational wavelength range from 400 nm to 1100 nm. The proposed structures are easy to fabricate and compatible with complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) image sensors. Moreover, the structures show low sensitivity to oblique incident angles of up to 30° with minimal wavelength shifts. This advanced Fabry–Pérot filter design provides a promising pathway for expanding the operational wavelength of snapshot spectral imaging systems, thereby potentially extending their application across numerous related fields.

The remarkable light perception abilities of the mantis shrimp, which span a broad spectrum ranging from 300 nm to 720 nm and include the detection of polarized light, serve as the inspiration for our exploration. Drawing insights from the mantis shrimp’s unique visual system, we propose the design of a multifunctional imaging sensor capable of concurrently detecting spectrum and polarization across a wide waveband. This sensor is able to show spectral imaging capability through the utilization of a 16-channel multi-waveband Fabry–Pérot (FP) resonator filter array. The design incorporates a composite thin film structure comprising metal and dielectric layers as the reflector of the resonant cavity. The resulting metal–dielectric composite film FP resonator extends the operating bandwidth to cover both visible and infrared regions, specifically spanning a broader range from 450 nm to 900 nm. Furthermore, within this operational bandwidth, the metal–dielectric composite film FP resonator demonstrates an average peak transmittance exceeding 60%, representing a notable improvement over the metallic resonator. Additionally, aluminum-based metallic grating arrays are incorporated beneath the FP filter array to capture polarization information. This innovative approach enables the simultaneous acquisition of spectrum and polarization information using a single sensor device. The outcomes of this research hold promise for advancing the development of high-performance, multifunctional optical sensors, thereby unlocking new possibilities in the field of optical information acquisition.

Cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) have been extensively studied for their ability to maintain liquid crystal (LC) order within solid films, providing a robust template for the self-assembly of plasmonic nanorods (NRs) and the construction of nanostructures. The self-assembly mechanism of NRs combined with uniaxially nematic CNC LCs has long attracted considerable attention. In this study, we investigated the influence of pH and aspect ratio on the self-assembly of composite NR–uniaxial nematic CNC systems. The phase diagram indicates that the uniaxial nematic phase of CNCs becomes more stable at higher pH, while it is more sensitive to disturbance from NRs with smaller aspect ratios. Furthermore, a composite effective excluded volume model was developed, in which the interaction between NRs and CNCs is incorporated, and the effective excluded volume is governed by both the effective CNC diameter and the NR aspect ratio. This study elucidates the influence mechanism of pH and aspect ratio on the self-assembly of composite NR–uniaxial nematic CNC systems, in good agreement with experimental observations. Our results provide fundamental insights into the utilization of uniaxial nematic CNC LCs as templates for fabricating novel nanomaterials and nanostructures, and deepen understanding of the mechanisms governing such composites.