Near-IR wide field-of-view Huygens metalens for outdoor imaging applications

TL;DR

This paper presents a novel Huygens nanoantenna metalens designed for outdoor near-IR imaging, achieving a wide field-of-view and demonstrating practical application potential in surveillance and photography.

Contribution

It introduces the first successful outdoor imaging metalens using Huygens nanoantennas, combining high performance with simple fabrication for mass production.

Findings

Achieves imaging quality over +/-15 degrees FOV

Demonstrates suitability for outdoor surveillance

First implementation of metalenses in outdoor imaging

Abstract

The ongoing effort to implement compact and cheap optical systems is the main driving force for the recent flourishing research in the field of optical metalenses. Metalenses are a type of metasurface, used for focusing and imaging applications, and are implemented based on the nanopatterning of an optical surface. The challenge faced by metalens research is to reach high levels of performance, using simple fabrication methods suitable for mass-production. In this paper we present a Huygens nanoantenna based metalens, designed for outdoor photographic/surveillance applications in the near-infra-red. We show that good imaging quality can be obtained over a field-of-view (FOV) as large as +/-15 degrees. This first successful implementation of metalenses for outdoor imaging applications is expected to provide insight and inspiration for future metalens imaging applications.