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A High Aspect Ratio Inverse-Designed Holey Metalens
Soon Wei Daniel Lim1, Maryna L Meretska1, Federico Capasso1
1Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, 9 Oxford Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, United States.
Nano Letters
|October 11, 2021
Summary
Researchers developed novel metalenses using deep via-holes, enhancing focusing efficiency and mechanical robustness. This breakthrough offers a new platform for ruggedized flat optics, including broadband achromatic metalenses.
Area of Science:
- Optics and Photonics
- Materials Science
Background:
- Metalenses commonly use nanofins or pillar meta-atoms.
- Existing designs face limitations in aspect ratio and mechanical robustness.
Purpose of the Study:
- To introduce and characterize a novel metasurface geometry using high aspect ratio via-holes.
- To demonstrate metalenses with improved focusing efficiency and mechanical stability.
Main Methods:
- Designed and fabricated metalenses with ultradeep via-holes (aspect ratios ~30:1) in silicon membranes.
- Employed inverse design to engineer both transmitted phase and amplitude profiles.
- Characterized the focusing performance of infrared light.
Main Results:
- Achieved diffraction-limited focusing of infrared light.
- Demonstrated improved impedance matching and increased focusing efficiency.
- Showcased enhanced mechanical robustness due to the high aspect ratio holey platform.
Conclusions:
- Via-hole metasurfaces offer an alternative to traditional pillar designs.
- This approach enables high aspect ratio nanostructures for ruggedized flat optics.
- Paves the way for advanced achromatic metalenses with increased chromatic group delay range.
