Diffractive order Mueller matrix ellipsometry for the design and manufacture of polarization beam splitting metasurfaces.

Optical metasurface technology promises an important potential for replacing bulky traditional optical components, in addition to enabling new compact and lightweight metasurface-based devices. Since even subtle imperfections in metasurface design or manufacture strongly affect their performance, there is an urgent need to develop proper and accurate protocols for their characterization, allowing for efficient control of the fabrication. We present non-destructive spectroscopic Mueller matrix ellipsometry in an uncommon off-specular configuration as a powerful tool for the characterization of orthogonal polarization beam-splitters based on a-Si:H nanopillars.