Metasurface Optics for Full-color Computational Imaging

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates a metasurface-based optical system that achieves full-color imaging under white light by combining computational imaging techniques with flat, miniaturized metasurface optics, overcoming traditional chromatic aberration issues.

Contribution

It introduces a novel metasurface metalens with spectrally invariant PSF that enables full-spectrum imaging and computational correction in a compact form factor.

Findings

Achieves in-focus white light imaging with a single metalens.

Demonstrates spectrally invariant point spread function for all visible wavelengths.

Reduces system size and complexity compared to traditional optics.

Abstract

Conventional imaging systems comprise large and expensive optical components which successively mitigate aberrations. Metasurface optics offers a route to miniaturize imaging systems by replacing bulky components with flat and compact implementations. The diffractive nature of these devices, however, induces severe chromatic aberrations and current multi-wavelength and narrowband achromatic metasurfaces cannot support full visible spectum imaging (400-700 nm). We combine principles of both computational imaging and metasurface optics to build a system with a single metalens of NA ~ 0.45 which generates in-focus images under white light illumination. Our metalens exhibits a spectrally invariant point spread function which enables computational reconstruction of captured images with a single digital filter. This work connects computational imaging and metasurface optics and demonstrates the capabilities of combining these disciplines by simultaneously reducing aberrations and downsizing imaging systems with simpler optics.