Visible Wavelength Planar Metalenses Based on Titanium Dioxide

Abstract

We present recent advances in metasurface-based photonics, which enables the realization of high performance planar lenses (metalenses) in the visible spectrum. They are enabled by a technique based on atomic layer deposition of titanium dioxide allowing for the fabrication of nanostructures with high fidelity. First, we demonstrate highly efficient metalenses with numerical aperture NA = 0.8 using the Pancharatnam-Berry phase approach. These metalenses can focus light into a diffraction-limited spot. They have efficiencies as high as 86% and provide high imaging resolution. Furthermore, by judicious design of the phase-shifting elements, we achieve a multispectral chiral metalens realized with a single metasurface layer. This chiral metalens can resolve both the chiral and spectral information of an object without the requirement of any additional optical components. Finally, we discuss the experimental realization of polarization-insensitive metalenses with NAs as high as 0.85. They are able to focus incident light to a spot as small as ~0.64λ with efficiencies up to 60%. Due to its straightforward and CMOS-compatible fabrication, this platform is promising for a wide range of applications ranging from camera modules, displays, laser-based imaging, microscopy, and spectroscopy to laser fabrication and lithography.