Broadband Achromatic Metalens for the Short-Wave Infrared

TL;DR

This paper presents a broadband achromatic metalens operating in the short-wave infrared (SWIR) range, designed to reduce chromatic aberration and enable compact, high-performance optical systems for quantum sensing and communication.

Contribution

A novel metalens design using silicon nanostructures on a CaF2 substrate that achieves broadband dispersion compensation and stable focusing across 1800-2300 nm.

Findings

Effective suppression of chromatic aberration over 1800-2300 nm

Focal-length variation within 6% of the target value

Weak wavelength dependence of polarization distribution

Abstract

The 1.8-2.3 {\mu}m band lies within the short-wavelength infrared (SWIR) region and serves as a key window for a wide range of applications, including quantum sensing, molecular spectroscopy, and free-space quantum and classical optical communication. Despite its significance, optical devices operating in this band still face two major challenges: chromatic aberration across the spectral range and difficulty of integration due to bulky optical elements. Metalenses are composed of subwavelength nanostructures that locally control the phase and group delay of light, enabling wavefront shaping and broadband dispersion compensation. These capabilities make them promising for infrared optical systems, particularly in focusing and imaging for compact devices. In this study, we propose a metalens design based on a CaF$_2$ substrate, where each nanocell consists of a silicon bar structure. These nanocells are periodically arranged with a 900~nm period, enabling control of dispersion and phase. By systematically finetuning the bar length and width, the design enables simultaneous dispersion compensation and phase modulation, achieving stable focusing performance over a broad spectral range. Finite-Difference Time-Domain (FDTD) simulations demonstrate effective suppression of chromatic aberration across 1800 - 2300 nm, with focal-length variation within 6% of the target value. We further analyze the polarization distribution across the focal spot and find a weak wavelength dependence of the degree of polarization (DoP), which we attribute to the spatially varying polarization state in the high-NA focal region together with the wavelength-dependent anisotropic response of the nanostructures. This design offers a compact, broadband, and high-performance approach for beam collimation and wavefront shaping in the SWIR band, showing promising potential for quantum communication and sensing systems.