Aberrations of flat lenses and aplanatic metasurfaces

Abstract

A study of optical aberrations for flat lenses based on phase discontinuities is reported. The wave aberration function and the analytical expression of the aberrations up to the 4th order are derived to describe the performance of both ideal and practical flat lenses. We find that aberration-free focusing is possible under axial illumination but off-axis aberrations appear when the excitation is not normal to the interface. An alternative design for an aplanatic metasurface on a curved substrate is proposed to focus light without coma and spherical aberrations.