High efficiency near diffraction-limited mid-infrared flat lenses based on metasurface reflectarrays.

We report the first demonstration of a mid-IR reflection-based flat lens with high efficiency and near diffraction-limited focusing. Focusing efficiency as high as 80%, in good agreement with simulations (83%), has been achieved at 45° incidence angle at λ = 4.6 µm. The off-axis geometry considerably simplifies the optical arrangement compared to the common geometry of normal incidence in reflection mode which requires beam splitters. Simulations show that the effects of incidence angle are small compared to parabolic mirrors with the same NA. The use of single-step photolithography allows large scale fabrication. Such a device is important in the development of compact telescopes, microscopes, and spectroscopic designs.

Large color gamut displays with diffraction gratings.

The ability to display a broad variety of colors has great benefits not only in the context of entertainment but also as a means to streamline design in prototyping and manufacturing processes. Displays that use RGB filters or backlights cannot span all colors that occur in nature. To improve the accuracy of color reproduction, there have been attempts to include additional color primaries in displays. Existing solutions, however, have an impact on cost, scalability, and spatial resolution and are predominantly applicable to projection systems. We propose an approach based on combining diffraction grating extractors and the HANS imaging pipeline initially developed for printing. This combination offers unprecedented potential to attain large color gamuts with the same backlights commercially used today.

Designing large, high-efficiency, high-numerical-aperture, transmissive meta-lenses for visible light.

A metasurface lens (meta-lens) bends light using nanostructures on a flat surface. Macroscopic meta-lenses (mm- to cm-scale diameter) have been quite difficult to simulate and optimize, due to the large area, the lack of periodicity, and the billions of adjustable parameters. We describe a method for designing a large-area meta-lens that allows not only prediction of the efficiency and far-field, but also optimization of the shape and position of each individual nanostructure, with a computational cost that is almost independent of the lens size. As examples, we design three large NA = 0.94 meta-lenses: One with 79% predicted efficiency for yellow light, one with dichroic properties, and one broadband lens. All have a minimum feature size of 100nm.

Achromatic Metasurface Lens at Telecommunication Wavelengths.

Nanoscale optical resonators enable a new class of flat optical components called metasurfaces. This approach has been used to demonstrate functionalities such as focusing free of monochromatic aberrations (i.e., spherical and coma), anomalous reflection, and large circular dichroism. Recently, dielectric metasurfaces that compensate the phase dispersion responsible for chromatic aberrations have been demonstrated. Here, we utilize an aperiodic array of coupled dielectric nanoresonators to demonstrate a multiwavelength achromatic lens. The focal length remains unchanged for three wavelengths in the near-infrared region (1300, 1550, and 1800 nm). Experimental results are in agreement with full-wave simulations. Our findings are an essential step toward a realization of broadband flat optical elements.

Near-Field Imaging of Phased Array Metasurfaces.

Phased-antenna metasurfaces can impart abrupt, spatially dependent changes to the amplitude, phase, and polarization of light and thus mold wavefronts in a desired fashion. Here we present an experimental and computational near-field study of metasurfaces based on near-resonant V-shaped antennas and connect their near- and far-field optical responses. We show that far fields can be obtained from limited, experimentally obtained knowledge of the near fields, paving the way for experimental near-field characterization of metasurfaces and other optical nanostructures and prediction of their far fields from the near-field measurements.

Applied optics. Multiwavelength achromatic metasurfaces by dispersive phase compensation.

The replacement of bulk refractive optical elements with diffractive planar components enables the miniaturization of optical systems. However, diffractive optics suffers from large chromatic aberrations due to the dispersion of the phase accumulated by light during propagation. We show that this limitation can be overcome with an engineered wavelength-dependent phase shift imparted by a metasurface, and we demonstrate a design that deflects three wavelengths by the same angle. A planar lens without chromatic aberrations at three wavelengths is also presented. Our designs are based on low-loss dielectric resonators, which introduce a dense spectrum of optical modes to enable dispersive phase compensation. The suppression of chromatic aberrations in metasurface-based planar photonics will find applications in lightweight collimators for displays, as well as chromatically corrected imaging systems.

Aberrations of flat lenses and aplanatic metasurfaces.

A study of optical aberrations for flat lenses based on phase discontinuities is reported. The wave aberration function and the analytical expression of the aberrations up to the 4th order are derived to describe the performance of both ideal and practical flat lenses. We find that aberration-free focusing is possible under axial illumination but off-axis aberrations appear when the excitation is not normal to the interface. An alternative design for an aplanatic metasurface on a curved substrate is proposed to focus light without coma and spherical aberrations.

A broadband, background-free quarter-wave plate based on plasmonic metasurfaces.

We demonstrate optically thin quarter-wave plates built with metasurfaces that generate high-quality circularly polarized light over a broad wavelength range for arbitrary orientation of the incident linear polarization. The metasurface consists of an array of plasmonic antennas with spatially varying phase and polarization responses. Experimentally demonstrated quarter-wave plates generate light with a high degree of circular polarization (>0.97) from λ = 5 to 12 µm, representing a major advance in performance compared to previously reported plasmonics-based wave plates.

Aberration-free ultrathin flat lenses and axicons at telecom wavelengths based on plasmonic metasurfaces.

The concept of optical phase discontinuities is applied to the design and demonstration of aberration-free planar lenses and axicons, comprising a phased array of ultrathin subwavelength-spaced optical antennas. The lenses and axicons consist of V-shaped nanoantennas that introduce a radial distribution of phase discontinuities, thereby generating respectively spherical wavefronts and nondiffracting Bessel beams at telecom wavelengths. Simulations are also presented to show that our aberration-free designs are applicable to high-numerical aperture lenses such as flat microscope objectives.

Out-of-plane reflection and refraction of light by anisotropic optical antenna metasurfaces with phase discontinuities.

Experiments on ultrathin anisotropic arrays of subwavelength optical antennas display out-of-plane refraction. A powerful three-dimensional (3D) extension of the recently demonstrated generalized laws of refraction and reflection shows that the interface imparts a tangential wavevector to the incident light leading to anomalous beams, which in general are noncoplanar with the incident beam. The refracted beam direction can be controlled by varying the angle between the plane of incidence and the antenna array.

Light propagation with phase discontinuities: generalized laws of reflection and refraction.

Conventional optical components rely on gradual phase shifts accumulated during light propagation to shape light beams. New degrees of freedom are attained by introducing abrupt phase changes over the scale of the wavelength. A two-dimensional array of optical resonators with spatially varying phase response and subwavelength separation can imprint such phase discontinuities on propagating light as it traverses the interface between two media. Anomalous reflection and refraction phenomena are observed in this regime in optically thin arrays of metallic antennas on silicon with a linear phase variation along the interface, which are in excellent agreement with generalized laws derived from Fermat's principle. Phase discontinuities provide great flexibility in the design of light beams, as illustrated by the generation of optical vortices through use of planar designer metallic interfaces.