All-Glass 100 mm Diameter Visible Metalens for Imaging the Cosmos

Abstract

Metasurfaces, optics made from subwavelength-scale nanostructures, have been limited to millimeter-sizes by the scaling challenge of producing vast numbers of precisely engineered elements over a large area. In this study, we demonstrate an all-glass 100 mm diameter metasurface lens (metalens) comprising 18.7 billion nanostructures that operates in the visible spectrum with a fast f-number (f/1.5, NA = 0.32) using deep-ultraviolet (DUV) projection lithography. Our work overcomes the exposure area constraints of lithography tools and demonstrates that large metasurfaces are commercially feasible. Additionally, we investigate the impact of various fabrication errors on the imaging quality of the metalens, several of which are specific to such large area metasurfaces. We demonstrate direct astronomical imaging of the Sun, the Moon, and emission nebulae at visible wavelengths and validate the robustness of such metasurfaces under extreme environmental thermal swings for space applications.

Metasurface-Controlled Holographic Microcavities

“…The presented design mechanism can realize arbitrary and asymmetric mode profiles within physical limits: First, the minimal achievable feature size in the image plane is given by the size of the metasurface and is limited by the Abbe diffraction limit. This can effectively be overcome as metasurfaces today can be manufactured with centimeter scale and larger transverse dimensions , and at ultraviolet frequencies. − If a use case requires changing conserved quantities of the incoming light, e.g., its orbital angular momentum (OAM), two different metasurface partial reflectors are required to maintain an intact round-trip phase condition.…”

Advanced manufacturing of dielectric meta-devices

“…Combined with nanoimprinting lithography, metasurfaces can be rapidly replicated from a master mold directly onto a substrate [126][127][128] . Other materials, including silicon nitride (Si 3 N 4 ) [75,129] , GaN [11,2,130,131] , zinc oxide (ZnO) [132,133] , germanium (Ge) [134,135] , silicon dioxide (SiO 2 ) [136][137][138] , and GaAs [139][140] , are also attractive options widely used in visible to NIR applications. For middle-IR applications, narrowband semiconductors like tellurium (Te) [141] , gallium antimonide (GaSb) [142] , and polar crystals such as silicon carbide (SiC) [143] have already been implemented for all-dielectric meta-devices operating with Mie resonances.…”

“…showcased an all-glass metalens with a diameter of 100 mm designed for operation in the visible spectrum, employing KrF DUV projection lithography as illustrated in the top panel of Fig. 12(g) [136] . A photograph and a tilted SEM image of the 100-mm-diameter metalens are presented in the bottom left Fig.…”

“…Additionally, an acquired image of the Moon is displayed. [136] Fig. 13 The utilization of nanoimprint lithography in the fabrication of all-dielectric metasurfaces.…”

The Effect of Height Error on Performance of Propagation Phase-Based Metalens

“…However, the practical application of a metalens depends not only on the initial design but also on the processing preparation. Despite significant advancements in design theory enabling the creation of highly efficient metalenses, the introduction of fabrication errors during manufacturing has often led to final device performances falling short of expectations [23][24][25][26][27]. In recent years, some researchers have delved into the effects of sidewall tilting, lateral dimension variation, and process defects of structural units on the performance of metalenses [28,29].…”