Metasurface Freeform Nanophotonics

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel low contrast dielectric metasurface platform that replicates freeform optical elements at the nanoscale, enabling miniaturized, complex optical components with enhanced functionalities.

Contribution

It presents a methodology for designing freeform optics analogues using metasurfaces, demonstrating practical devices like a cubic phase plate and an Alvarez lens with tunable focus.

Findings

Enhanced depth of field in the cubic phase plate

Tunable focal length over 2.5 mm in Alvarez lens

Potential for miniaturized, complex optical systems

Abstract

Freeform optics aims to expand the toolkit of optical elements by allowing for more complex phase geometries beyond rotational symmetry. Complex, asymmetric curvatures are employed to enhance the performance of optical components while minimizing their weight and size. Unfortunately, these asymmetric forms are often difficult to manufacture at the nanoscale with current technologies. Metasurfaces are planar sub-wavelength structures that can control the phase, amplitude, and polarization of incident light, and can thereby mimic complex geometric curvatures on a flat, wavelength-scale thick surface. We present a methodology for designing analogues of freeform optics using a low contrast dielectric metasurface platform for operation at visible wavelengths. We demonstrate a cubic phase plate with a point spread function exhibiting enhanced depth of field over 300 {\mu}m along the optical axis with potential for performing metasurface-based white light imaging, and an Alvarez lens with a tunable focal length range of over 2.5 mm with 100 {\mu}m of total mechanical displacement. The adaptation of freeform optics to a sub-wavelength metasurface platform allows for the ultimate miniaturization of optical components and offers a scalable route toward implementing near-arbitrary geometric curvatures in nanophotonics.