High performance metalenses: numerical aperture, aberrations, chromaticity, and trade-offs

Author(s)

Liang, Haowen ^[1] ; Martins, Augusto ^[2] ; Borges, Ben-Hur V. ^[2] ; Zhou, Jianying ^[1] ; Martins, Emiliano R. ^[2] ; Li, Juntao ^[1] ; Krauss, Thomas F. ^{[3, 1]}

Affiliation

^[1] Sun Yat Sen Univ, Sch Phys, State Key Lab Optoelect Mat & Technol, Guangzhou 510275, Guangdong - Peoples R China

^[2] Univ Sao Paulo, Dept Elect & Comp Engn, Sao Carlos Sch Engn, BR-13566590 Sao Paulo - Brazil

^[3] Univ York, Dept Phys, York YO10 5DD, N Yorkshire - England

• Document type: Review article
• Source: OPTICA; v. 6, n. 12, p. 1461-1470, DEC 20 2019.
• Web of Science Citations: 0

Abstract

Metalenses consist of nanostructures that locally control the optical phase. They offer many degrees of freedom for manipulating a wavefront, which gives a number of advantages over bulk lenses, such as the straightforward elimination of spherical aberrations and an ultrathin dimension. Here, we compare the phase profiles of metalenses made of different dielectric materials and note the advantage of high refractive index materials. Higher refractive index materials such as silicon afford more degrees of freedom in terms of design and fabrication and are the basis for high-performance metalenses, even in the visible. Nevertheless, the imaging performance of single-element metalenses is still limited by coma and chromatic aberrations. This limitation is exacerbated by high numerical apertures and large areas. We review the challenges and trade-offs between numerical aperture, field of view, coma, chromatic aberration, and size. We also evaluate different phase engineering approaches to address these problems. We believe this review will help guide future developments in high-performance metalenses toward wide-field and high-resolution imaging, enabling scientific high-end miniature imaging systems. (c) 2019 Optical Society of America under the terms of the OSA Open Access Publishing Agreement (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 16/05809-0 - Nanophotonics for renewable energy and light steering
• Grantee: Emiliano Rezende Martins
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• FAPESP's process: 15/21455-1 - Design, fabrication and characterization of metasurfaces for diffractive optics applications
• Grantee: Augusto Martins
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate (Direct)
• FAPESP's process: 18/25372-1 - Design, fabrication and characterization of aberration-free metalenses for integrated optics applications
• Grantee: Augusto Martins
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Doctorate (Direct)