High efficiency aberration corrected large metalenses
Abstract
Refractory optics, such as lenses, though universally used in photonics suffers from limitations of being thick, bulky, and as result complex. Such drawbacks arise from the required curved surfaces, which needs to be precisely machined using molding technology, and from the need to correct, using multiple cascaded lenses, monochromatic aberrations (spherical, coma, astigmatism, distortion, field curvature, and higher order ones) and chromatic aberrations. Diffractive optics on the other hand suffers from limitations of spurious diffraction orders, halos and rainbows and is limited in its ability to achieve diffraction limited focusing and achromatic operation. This program focuses on demonstrating large (centimeter diameter) planar lenses capable of performing aberration‐free achromatic/white light imaging with high efficiency, large field of view and high numerical aperture. The revolutionary aspect of the proposed lens is the correction of all key aberrations (chromatic and monochromatic) across the entire visible spectrum using two‐dimensional metamaterials (metasurfaces) consisting of nanoscale phase shifting elements to design the required lens profile, thus overcoming the limitations of refractory and diffractive lenses and enabling fabrication with the technology of integrated circuits (stepper lithography), combined with compatible atomic layer deposition of optically lossless Titanium dioxide as the lens material, rather than the centuries old lens molding/polishing technology.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Jan 30, 2018
- Source ID
- HR00111810001
Entities
People
- Federico Cappasso
Organizations
- Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
- President and Fellows of Harvard College