Miniaturized computational spectrometer enabled by the photoelastic effect with adaptive modulation units selection

作者：Linjun Zhai, Baolei Liu, Muchen Zhu, Yao Wang, Chaohao Chen, Zhaohua Yang, Lan Fu, Wang Fan · 发表于：Photonics Research · 年份：2025 · DOI：10.1364/prj.575937 · 被引用次数：3 · 研究领域：Optical Polarization and Ellipsometry、Optical Coatings and Gratings、Optical and Acousto-Optic Technologies

Miniature computational spectrometers, distinguished by their compact size and light weight, have shown great promise for on-chip and portable applications in the fields of healthcare, environmental monitoring, food safety, and industrial process monitoring. However, the common miniaturization strategies predominantly rely on advanced micro-nano fabrication and complex material engineering, limiting their scalability and affordability. Here, we present a broadband miniaturized computational spectrometer (ElastoSpec) enabled by the photoelastic effect, featuring easy-to-prepare and configurable implementation with adaptive modulation units selection for optimized spectral reconstruction. A single computational photoelastic spectral filter, with only two polarizers and a plastic sheet, is designed to be integrated onto the top of a CMOS sensor for snapshot spectral acquisition. The distinct spectral modulation units are directly generated from different spatial locations of the filter, due to the photoelastic-induced chromatic polarization effect of the plastic sheet. We experimentally demonstrate that ElastoSpec offers excellent reconstruction accuracy for the measurement of both simple narrowband and complex spectra. ElastoSpec exhibits a spectral resolution of 2 nm and achieves a full width at half maximum (FWHM) error of approximately 0.2 nm for monochromatic inputs. It also maintains a mean squared error (MSE) value on the order of 10 −3 with only 10 spectral modulation un...