Refractive Index Robustness of Metalenses

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that dielectric metalenses inherently maintain stable focusing performance despite refractive index fluctuations caused by environmental factors, due to their structural invariance.

Contribution

It reveals the physical origin of refractive index robustness in dielectric metalenses and introduces the concept of quasi-scale-invariant focusing behavior.

Findings

Metalenses maintain stable focus despite index variations.

Robustness stems from stationary zone boundaries despite local phase changes.

Focusing performance scales linearly with geometric scaling even with dispersion.

Abstract

Metalenses have emerged as a powerful platform for compact wavefront engineering; however, their performance stability under refractive index fluctuations induced by environmental perturbations, such as temperature shifts, remains a critical concern. Here, we demonstrate the intrinsic refractive index robustness of dielectric metalenses and elucidate its physical origin. By parametrically sweeping the refractive index, we observe that the metalens maintains a stable focal profile with negligible deviations in best-focus position and spot size over a broad range of variations. We identify that this robustness arises from the structural invariance of the zone boundaries: despite index-induced local phase deformations, the spatial locations of the 2{\pi} phase-reset boundaries remain stationary, thereby maintaining the effective wavefront gradient. Furthermore, we reveal that this robustness enables a "quasi-scale-invariant" focusing behavior, where the focusing performance follows a predictable linear trend under uniform geometric scaling even in the presence of material dispersion. Our findings suggest that metalenses can maintain stable focusing behavior against refractive index variations that may arise from unavoidable environmental perturbations in practical optical systems.