Varifocal zoom imaging with large area focal length adjustable metalenses

TL;DR

This paper presents a large-area, tunable metalens system capable of varifocal zoom imaging at 1550 nm and visible wavelengths, using minimal lateral actuation for significant focal length changes, enabling compact and scalable optical devices.

Contribution

The authors develop a 1 cm aperture varifocal metalens system with high focusing efficiency and large focal length tunability, fabricated via high-throughput photolithography, and demonstrate its application in zoom imaging.

Findings

Achieved over 6 cm focal length change (>200%) with high efficiency.

Demonstrated 4x zoom imaging without additional optical elements.

Fabricated large-area metalenses using scalable photolithography.

Abstract

Varifocal lenses are essential components of dynamic optical systems with applications in photography, mixed reality, and microscopy. Metasurface optics has strong potential for creating tunable flat optics. Existing tunable metalenses, however, typically require microelectromechanical actuators, which cannot be scaled to large area devices, or rely on high voltages to stretch a flexible substrate and achieve a sufficient tuning range. Here, we build a 1 cm aperture varifocal metalens system at 1550 nm wavelength inspired by an Alvarez lens, fabricated using high-throughput stepper photolithography. We demonstrate a nonlinear change in focal length by minimally actuating two cubic phase metasurfaces laterally, with focusing efficiency as high as 57% and a wide focal length change of more than 6 cm (> 200%). We also test a lens design at visible wavelength and conduct varifocal zoom imaging with a demonstrated 4x zoom capability without any other optical elements in the imaging path.