Scalable and High-Throughput Top-Down Manufacturing of Optical Metasurfaces

Abstract

Metasurfaces have shown promising potential to miniaturize existing bulk optical components thanks to their extraordinary optical properties and ultra-thin, small, and lightweight footprints. However, the absence of proper manufacturing methods has been one of the main obstacles preventing the practical application of metasurfaces and commercialization. Although a variety of fabrication techniques have been used to produce optical metasurfaces, there are still no universal scalable and high-throughput manufacturing methods that meet the criteria for large-scale metasurfaces for device/product-level applications. The fundamentals and recent progress of the large area and high-throughput manufacturing methods are discussed with practical device applications. We systematically classify various top-down scalable patterning techniques for optical metasurfaces: firstly, optical and printing methods are categorized and then their conventional and unconventional (emerging/new) techniques are discussed in detail, respectively. In the end of each section, we also introduce the recent developments of metasurfaces realized by the corresponding fabrication methods.

Metasurface-empowered spectral and spatial light modulation for disruptive holographic displays

“…In this section, we will describe state-of-the-art nanofabrication technologies for mass production of a metasurface-based holographic display platform, driving the development from lab scale to industrial scale. [204][205][206] At the lab scale, metasurfaces are generally prepared using electron beam lithography (EBL) with fine critical dimensions. However, to move forward to the scalable preparation of metasurfaces with micro-or nanostructures, various non-conventional preparation techniques are required.…”

Recent Progress on Ultrathin Metalenses for Flat Optics

“…However, their low resolution and the limitation of available materials hinder applying to fabrication of metalens that focuses the visible light. Therefore, scalable, high-throughput, and elaborate manufacturing techniques are required for the mass production of metalenses at visible frequencies (Lee et al, 2020c).…”

Enhancement of Luminous Intensity Emission from Incoherent LED Light Sources within the Detection Angle of 10° Using Metalenses

“…Optical metasurfaces are made up of precisely designed structures, known as meta-atoms, that can modulate the phase [ 1 , 2 ], amplitude [ 3 , 4 , 5 ], and polarization [ 6 , 7 ] of incident light. Metalenses (MLs) [ 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 ], meta-holograms [ 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 ], structural color [ 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 ], light detection [ 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 ], perfect absorber [ 39 , 40 ], and sensors [ 41 , 42 , 43 , 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 ] are typical applications of optical metasurfaces. Recently, various improvements to MLs have been repo...…”