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A broadband achromatic metalens in the visible

Nature Nanotechnology volume 13, pages 227–232 (2018)Cite this article

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Abstract

Metalenses consist of an array of optical nanoantennas on a surface capable of manipulating the properties of an incoming light wavefront. Various flat optical components, such as polarizers, optical imaging encoders, tunable phase modulators and a retroreflector, have been demonstrated using a metalens design. An open issue, especially problematic for colour imaging and display applications, is the correction of chromatic aberration, an intrinsic effect originating from the specific resonance and limited working bandwidth of each nanoantenna. As a result, no metalens has demonstrated full-colour imaging in the visible wavelength. Here, we show a design and fabrication that consists of GaN-based integrated-resonant unit elements to achieve an achromatic metalens operating in the entire visible region in transmission mode. The focal length of our metalenses remains unchanged as the incident wavelength is varied from 400 to 660 nm, demonstrating complete elimination of chromatic aberration at about 49% bandwidth of the central working wavelength. The average efficiency of a metalens with a numerical aperture of 0.106 is about 40% over the whole visible spectrum. We also show some examples of full-colour imaging based on this design.

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Fig. 1: IRUEs for a broadband achromatic metalens in the visible light region.
Fig. 2: Experimental verification of achromatic metalenses.
Fig. 3: Performance of broadband achromatic metalens.
Fig. 4: Imaging using a visible achromatic metalens with NA = 0.106.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge financial support from The National Key R&D Program of China (2017YFA0303700, 2016YFA0202103), National Natural Science Foundation of China (no. 11674167, 11621091, 11774164, 11322439), Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan (grant no. MOST-106-2745-M-002-003-ASP) and Academia Sinica (grant no. AS-103-TP-A06). T.L. thanks the support from Dengfeng Project B of Nanjing University. The authors are also grateful to the National Center for Theoretical Sciences, NEMS Research Center of National Taiwan University, National Center for High-Performance Computing, Taiwan, and Research Center for Applied Sciences, Academia Sinica, Taiwan for their support.

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Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Shuming Wang, Pin Chieh Wu and Vin-Cent Su

Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Laboratory of Solid State Microstructures, College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, School of Physics, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China

    Shuming Wang, Tao Li, Zhenlin Wang & Shining Zhu

  2. Research Center for Applied Sciences, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan

    Pin Chieh Wu, Tzu-Ting Huang & Din Ping Tsai

  3. Department of Electrical Engineering, National United University, Miaoli, Taiwan

    Vin-Cent Su

  4. Department of Physics, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan

    Yi-Chieh Lai, Mu-Ku Chen, Hsin Yu Kuo, Bo Han Chen, Yu Han Chen & Din Ping Tsai

  5. Department of Electrical Engineering and Graduate Institute of Electronics Engineering, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan

    Jung-Hsi Wang & Chieh-Hsiung Kuan

  6. Department of Electronic Engineering, Chang Gung University, Taoyuan, Taiwan

    Ray-Ming Lin & Din Ping Tsai

  7. Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Microstructures, Nanjing, China

    Tao Li, Zhenlin Wang & Shining Zhu

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  1. Shuming Wang
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Contributions

S.W. and P.C.W. developed the theoretical aspects, performed the numerical design, optical measurement and data analysis, and wrote the manuscript. V.-C.S. performed the sample preparation. Y.-C.L., M.-K.C. and H.Y.K. built up the optical system for measurement. B.H.C., Y.H.C. and T.-T.H. performed the numerical simulation and data analysis. J.-H.W., R.-M.L. and C.-H.K. provided GaN film and performed the sample preparation. T.L., Z.W. and S.Z. organized the project, designed experiments, analysed the results and prepared the manuscripts. D.P.T. organized the project, designed and developed the theoretical model, numerical design and optical measurement, analysed the results and prepared the manuscript. All authors discussed the results and commented on the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Din Ping Tsai.

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Wang, S., Wu, P.C., Su, VC. et al. A broadband achromatic metalens in the visible. Nature Nanotech 13, 227–232 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41565-017-0052-4

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