We posit that inconsistent interpretations of experimental data have led to inaccurate claims on metalens focusing efficiencies. By performing a meta-analysis, we show that extraordinary claims of high focusing efficiency at high numerical apertures are, unfortunately, not yet backed by rigorous simulation or experimental results.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Access Nature and 54 other Nature Portfolio journals
Get Nature+, our best-value online-access subscription
$29.99 / 30 days
cancel any time
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 12 print issues and online access
$209.00 per year
only $17.42 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
References
Mait, J. N. & Prather, D. W. Selected Papers on Subwavelength Diffractive Optics SPIE Milestone Series Vol. MS 166 (SPIE, 2001).
Engelberg, J. & Levy, U. Nat. Commun. 11, 1991 (2020).
Kipfer, P. et al. Opt. Eng. 33, 79–84 (1994).
Arbabi, A. & Faraon, A. Nat. Photon. 17, 16–25 (2023).
Prather, D. W., Pustai, D. & Shi, S. Appl. Opt. 40, 207–210 (2001).
Finlan, J. M., Flood, K. M. & Bojko, R. J. Opt. Eng. 34, 3560–3564 (1995).
Khorasaninejad, M. et al. Science 352, 1190–1194 (2016).
Arbabi, A. et al. Sci. Rep. 10, 7124 (2020).
Shalaginov, M. Y. et al. Nano Lett. 20, 7429–7437 (2020).
Chung, H. & Miller, O. D. Opt. Express 28, 6945–6965 (2020).
Buralli, D. A. & Morris, G. M. Appl. Opt. 31, 4389–4396 (1992).
Engelberg, J. & Levy, U. Nat. Photon. 16, 171–173 (2022).
Khorasaninejad, M. et al. Nano Lett. 16, 7229–7234 (2016).
Ford, J. E., Xu, F., Urquhart, K. & Fainman, Y. Opt. Lett. 18, 456–458 (1993).
Kim, G., Domínguez-Caballero, J. A. & Menon, R. Opt. Express 20, 2814–2823 (2012).
Magnusson, A., Moud, K. K. & Hård, S. in Diffractive Optics and Micro-Optics (ed. Magnusson, R.) DTuB2 (Optica Publishing Group, 2002).
Acknowledgements
Support from grants N6560-NV-ONR and NASA NNL16AA05C are gratefully acknowledged. We thank H. Smith, H. Li and O. Miller for fruitful discussions.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
R.M. has financial interest in Oblate Optics, Inc., which is commercializing flat lenses.
Peer review
Peer review information
Nature Photonics thanks Uriel Levy and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.
Supplementary information
Supplementary Information
Supplementary Figs. 1 and 2 and Supplementary Table 1.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Menon, R., Sensale-Rodriguez, B. Inconsistencies of metalens performance and comparison with conventional diffractive optics. Nat. Photon. 17, 923–924 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41566-023-01306-w
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41566-023-01306-w
