Wide Field of View Large Aperture Meta-Doublet Eyepiece

TL;DR

This paper presents a novel wide field of view, large aperture meta-optic doublet eyepiece that rivals traditional lenses in performance, offering a compact and lightweight solution for advanced eyewear applications like augmented reality and night vision.

Contribution

Introduction of a wide field of view, large aperture meta-optic doublet eyepiece with performance comparable to refractive lenses, enabling more compact and lightweight eyewear systems.

Findings

Achieves >60° field of view with a 2.1 cm aperture

Performance comparable to traditional refractive lens systems at 633 nm

Demonstrates potential for meta-optics in near-eye display and night vision

Abstract

Wide field of view and light weight optics are critical for advanced eyewear, with applications in augmented/virtual reality and night vision. Conventional refractive lenses are often stacked to correct aberrations at wide field of view, leading to limited performance and increased size and weight. In particular, simultaneously achieving wide field of view and large aperture for light collection is desirable but challenging to realize in a compact form-factor. Here, we demonstrate a wide field of view (greater than 60$^\circ$) meta-optic doublet eyepiece with an entrance aperture of 2.1 cm. At the design wavelength of 633 nm, the meta-optic doublet achieves comparable performance to a refractive lens-based eyepiece system. This meta-doublet eyepiece illustrates the potential for meta-optics to play an important role in the development of high-quality monochrome near-eye display and night vision systems.