Miniature optical planar camera based on a wide-angle metasurface doublet corrected for monochromatic aberrations

TLDR

Optical metasurfaces are two‑dimensional arrays of nano‑scatterers that reshape wavefronts at sub‑wavelength resolution, promising low‑cost, complex optical systems that can be stacked and directly integrated with image sensors for advanced imaging corrections. This work demonstrates a miniature flat camera that integrates a monolithic metasurface lens doublet, corrected for monochromatic aberrations, with an image sensor. The doublet functions as a fisheye objective with an f‑number of 0.9, a field of view larger than 60°×60°, and 70 % focusing efficiency at 850 nm. The camera achieves nearly diffraction‑limited image quality, underscoring its potential for microscopy, photography, and computer vision applications.

Abstract

Abstract Optical metasurfaces are two-dimensional arrays of nano-scatterers that modify optical wavefronts at subwavelength spatial resolution. They are poised to revolutionize optics by enabling complex low-cost systems where multiple metasurfaces are lithographically stacked and integrated with electronics. For imaging applications, metasurface stacks can perform sophisticated image corrections and can be directly integrated with image sensors. Here we demonstrate this concept with a miniature flat camera integrating a monolithic metasurface lens doublet corrected for monochromatic aberrations, and an image sensor. The doublet lens, which acts as a fisheye photographic objective, has a small f -number of 0.9, an angle-of-view larger than 60° × 60°, and operates at 850 nm wavelength with 70% focusing efficiency. The camera exhibits nearly diffraction-limited image quality, which indicates the potential of this technology in the development of optical systems for microscopy, photography, and computer vision.