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Scalable manufacturing of high-index atomic layer–polymer hybrid metasurfaces for metaphotonics in the visible

Nature Materials volume 22, pages 474–481 (2023)Cite this article

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Abstract

Metalenses are attractive alternatives to conventional bulky refractive lenses owing to their superior light-modulating performance and sub-micrometre-scale thicknesses; however, limitations in existing fabrication techniques, including high cost, low throughput and small patterning area, have hindered their mass production. Here we demonstrate low-cost and high-throughput mass production of large-aperture visible metalenses using deep-ultraviolet argon fluoride immersion lithography and wafer-scale nanoimprint lithography. Once a 12″ master stamp is imprinted, hundreds of centimetre-scale metalenses can be fabricated using a thinly coated high-index film to enhance light confinement, resulting in a substantial increase in conversion efficiency. As a proof of concept, an ultrathin virtual reality device created with the printed metalens demonstrates its potential towards the scalable manufacturing of metaphotonic devices.

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Fig. 1: Photograph of mass-produced metalenses.
Fig. 2: Conversion efficiencies of high-index meta-atoms.
Fig. 3: Mass production of high-efficiency visible metalenses using an ArF immersion scanner.
Fig. 4: Optical characterization of the fabricated metalenses.
Fig. 5: Metalens-integrated virtual information imaging.

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Data availability

The data supporting the findings of this study are available from the corresponding authors upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by the POSCO-POSTECH-RIST Convergence Research Center programme funded by POSCO, the Samsung Research Funding & Incubation Center for Future Technology grant (SRFC-IT1901-52) funded by Samsung Electronics, and the National Research Foundation (NRF) grants (NRF-2022M3C1A3081312, NRF-2022M3H4A1A02074314, NRF-2022M3H4A1A02085335, NRF-2021M3H4A1A04086554, NRF-2021K2A9A2A15000174, NRF-2019R1A2C3003129, NRF-2019R1A5A8080290, CAMM-2019M3A6B3030637) funded by the Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT) of the Korean government. H.L. acknowledges the NRF grant (NRF-2019K1A4A7A02113032) funded by the MSIT, and Technology Innovation Program (20016234) funded by the Ministry of Trade, Industry & Energy of the Korean government. J.K. and H.K. acknowledge the POSTECH Alchemist fellowships. D.K.O., Y.Y. and Y.K. acknowledge the Hyundai Motor Chung Mong-Koo fellowships. Y.Y. and Y.K. acknowledge the NRF PhD fellowships (NRF-2021R1A6A3A13038935 and NRF-2022R1A6A3A13066251, respectively) funded by the Ministry of Education of the Korean government. Y.K. acknowledges the NRF International Research & Development fellowship (NRF-2022K1A3A1A12080445) funded by the MSIT of the Korean government. The authors thank T. Badloe (POSTECH) for English proofreading and fruitful discussion.

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Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Joohoon Kim, Junhwa Seong, Wonjoong Kim.

  2. Deceased: Byoungho Lee.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), Pohang, Republic of Korea

    Joohoon Kim, Junhwa Seong, Seokwoo Kim, Hongyoon Kim, Seong-Won Moon, Dong Kyo Oh, Younghwan Yang, Jeonghoon Park, Yeseul Kim, Minsu Jeong & Junsuk Rho

  2. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Korea University, Seoul, Republic of Korea

    Wonjoong Kim, Chanwoong Park, Hojung Choi & Heon Lee

  3. School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Seoul National University, Seoul, Republic of Korea

    Gun-Yeal Lee, Namkyoo Park & Byoungho Lee

  4. Department of Chemical Engineering, Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), Pohang, Republic of Korea

    Jaehyuck Jang & Junsuk Rho

  5. Research Institute of Industrial Science and Technology (RIST), Pohang, Republic of Korea

    Gyoseon Jeon, Kyung-il Lee & Dong Hyun Yoon

  6. POSCO-POSTECH-RIST Convergence Research Center for Flat Optics and Metaphotonics, Pohang, Republic of Korea

    Junsuk Rho

  7. National Institute of Nanomaterials Technology (NINT), Pohang, Republic of Korea

    Junsuk Rho

Authors
  1. Joohoon Kim
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Contributions

J.R. and H.L. conceived the idea and initiated the project. J.R. and J.K. designed the whole experiments. J.K., S.K., H.K., S.-W.M., J.P., Y.K., J.R. and N.P. performed the theoretical and numerical simulations. W.K., J.K., J.S., D.K.O., Y.Y., C.P., H.C., G.J., K.L. and D.H.Y. contributed to the master mould fabrication and nanoimprinting. J.S., J.K., J.J. and M.J. performed the experimental characterization and data analysis of the materials and devices. G.-Y.L. and B.L. supported the experimental part of VR display. J.K., J.S. and J.R. mainly wrote the manuscript. All the authors confirmed the final manuscript. J.R. guided the entire project.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Heon Lee or Junsuk Rho.

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Kim, J., Seong, J., Kim, W. et al. Scalable manufacturing of high-index atomic layer–polymer hybrid metasurfaces for metaphotonics in the visible. Nat. Mater. 22, 474–481 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-023-01485-5

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