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Metalenses: from design principles to functional applications

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Abstract

Lens is a basic optical element that is widely used in daily life, such as in cameras, glasses, and microscopes. Conventional lenses are designed based on the classical refractive optics, which results in inevitable imaging aberrations, such as chromatic aberration, spherical aberration and coma. To solve these problems, conventional imaging systems impose multiple curved lenses with different thicknesses and materials to eliminate these aberrations. As a unique photonic technology, metasurfaces can accurately manipulate the wavefront of light to produce fascinating and peculiar optical phenomena, which has stimulated researchers’ extensive interests in the field of planar optics. Starting from the introduction of phase modulation methods, this review summarizes the design principles and characteristics of metalenses. Although the imaging quality of existing metalenses is not necessarily better than that of conventional lenses, the multi-dimensional and multi-degree-of-freedom control of metasurfaces provides metalenses with novel functions that are extremely challenging or impossible to achieve with conventional lenses.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (No. 2020YFC2007102), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 12074444), and Guangdong Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation (No. 2020A1515011184), Innovation Group Project of Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Zhuhai).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Materials and Technologies, School of Physics, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, 510275, China

    Xiao Fu, Haowen Liang & Juntao Li

  2. Southern Marine Science and Engineering, Guangdong Laboratory (Zhuhai), Zhuhai, 519080, China

    Haowen Liang

Authors
  1. Xiao Fu
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  2. Haowen Liang
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  3. Juntao Li
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Correspondence to Haowen Liang.

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Xiao Fu is a postdoctoral fellow led by Prof. Juntao Li at Sun Yat-sen University, China. She obtained her B.E. degree in Photovoltaic and Renewable Energy from University of New South Wales, Australia, and her Ph.D. degree in the field of perovskite solar cells from Australian National University, Australia. Her research interests are optoelectronic devices, metasurfaces, and fabrication of nanostructures.

Haowen Liang is an associate professor at Sun Yat-sen University, China. He received his Ph.D. degree in the field of optical engineering from Sun Yat-sen University, China. His research interests are advanced imaging and displays achieved by optical field manipulation.

Juntao Li is a professor at Sun Yat-sen University, China. He got his Ph.D. degree in the field of nanophotonic from Sun Yatsen University, China. His research interests are the photon controlling by the nanophotonic structures.

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Fu, X., Liang, H. & Li, J. Metalenses: from design principles to functional applications. Front. Optoelectron. 14, 170–186 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12200-021-1201-9

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