Wide field-of-view metalens: a tutorial

Abstract

Wide field-of-view (FOV) optics are essential components in many optical systems, with applications spanning imaging, display, sensing, and beam steering. Conventional refractive wide FOV optics often involve multiple stacked lenses, resulting in large size and weight as well as high cost. Metasurface lenses or metalenses promise a viable solution to realizing wide FOV optics without complex lens assembly. We review the various architectures of wide FOV metalenses, elucidate their fundamental operating principles and design trade-offs, and quantitatively evaluate and contrast their imaging performances. Emerging applications enabled by wide FOV metasurface optics are also discussed.