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This 10-centimeter-diameter glass metalens can symbol the solar, the moon and far away nebulae with excessive answer. Credit score: Capasso Lab/Harvard SEAS
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This 10-centimeter-diameter glass metalens can symbol the solar, the moon and far away nebulae with excessive answer. Credit score: Capasso Lab/Harvard SEAS
Metalenses had been used to symbol microscopic options of tissue and get to the bottom of main points smaller than a wavelength of sunshine. Now they’re going larger.
Researchers on the Harvard John A. Paulson Faculty of Engineering and Implemented Sciences (SEAS) have advanced a 10-centimeter-diameter glass metalens that may symbol the solar, the moon and far away nebulae with excessive answer. It’s the first all-glass, large-scale metalens within the visual wavelength that may be mass produced the use of standard CMOS fabrication generation.
The analysis is printed in ACS Nano.
“The power to as it should be regulate the scale of tens of billions of nanopillars over an unprecedentedly vast flat lens the use of state of the art semiconductor foundry processes is a nanofabrication feat that opens thrilling new alternatives for area science and generation,” mentioned Federico Capasso, the Robert L. Wallace Professor of Implemented Physics and Vinton Hayes Senior Analysis Fellow in Electric Engineering at SEAS and senior writer of the paper.
Maximum flat metalenses, which use thousands and thousands of pillar-like nanostructures to center of attention gentle, are in regards to the measurement of a work of glitter. In 2019, Capasso and his staff advanced a centimeter-scale metalens the use of one way referred to as deep-ultraviolet (DUV) projection lithography, which initiatives and paperwork a nanostructure trend that may be immediately etched into the glass wafer, getting rid of the time-consuming writing and deposition processes that have been required for earlier metalenses.
DUV projection lithography is recurrently used to trend nice traces and shapes in silicon chips for smartphones and computer systems. Joon-Suh Park, a former graduate pupil at SEAS and present postdoctoral fellow in Capasso’s staff demonstrated that the method may just no longer handiest be used to mass produce metalenses but in addition build up their measurement for packages in digital and augmented truth.
Symbol of the North The usa Nebula, within the constellation Cygnus, taken via the metalens at the roof of the Science Heart in Cambridge. Credit score: Capasso Lab/Harvard SEAS
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Symbol of the North The usa Nebula, within the constellation Cygnus, taken via the metalens at the roof of the Science Heart in Cambridge. Credit score: Capasso Lab/Harvard SEAS
However making the metalens even better for packages in astronomy and free-space optical communications posed an engineering drawback.
“There’s a primary limitation with the lithography software as a result of those equipment are used to make pc chips, so chip measurement is particular to not more than 20 to 30 millimeters,” mentioned Park, co-first writer of the paper. “In an effort to make a 100-millimeter diameter lens, we had to be able round this limitation.”
Park and the staff advanced a option to sew in combination a number of patterns of nanopillars the use of the DUV projection lithography software. By way of dividing the lens into 25 sections however the use of handiest the seven sections of a quadrant taking into consideration the rotational symmetry, the researchers confirmed that DUV projection lithography may just trend 18.7 billion designed nanostructures onto a 10-centimeter round house in a question of mins.
The staff additionally advanced a vertical glass etching method that permits the introduction of high-aspect ratio, smooth-sidewall nanopillars etched into glass.
“The usage of the similar DUV projection lithography, one may just produce large-diameter, aberration-correcting meta-optics and even better lenses on better glass diameter wafers because the corresponding CMOS foundry equipment transform an increasing number of to be had within the business,” mentioned Quickly Wei Daniel Lim, a postdoctoral fellow at SEAS and co-first writer of the paper.
Lim performed a lead function within the complete simulation and characterization of all of the conceivable fabrication mistakes that might rise up all through mass-manufacturing processes and the way they might affect the optical efficiency of metalenses.
After addressing conceivable production demanding situations, the researchers demonstrated the ability of the metalens in imaging celestial items.
Mounting the metalens on a tripod with a colour clear out and digital camera sensor, Park and the staff took to the roof of Harvard’s Science Heart. There, they imaged the solar, the moon and the North The usa nebula, a dim nebula within the constellation Cygnus about 2,590 gentle years away.
Symbol of the moon taken via the metalens from the roof a construction in Cambridge, MA. Credit score: Capasso Lab/Harvard SEAS
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Symbol of the moon taken via the metalens from the roof a construction in Cambridge, MA. Credit score: Capasso Lab/Harvard SEAS
“We have been in a position to get very detailed photographs of the solar, the moon and the nebula which might be similar to photographs taken via standard lenses,” mentioned Arman Amirzhan, a graduate pupil within the Capasso Lab and co-author of the paper.
The usage of handiest the metalens, the researchers have been in a position to symbol the similar cluster of sunspots as a NASA symbol taken that very same day.
The staff additionally demonstrated that the lens may just live to tell the tale publicity to excessive warmth, excessive chilly and the serious vibrations that might happen all through an area release with none harm or loss in optical efficiency.
As a result of its measurement and monolithic glass composition, the lens is also used for long-range telecommunications and directed power shipping packages.
Additional info:
Joon-Suh Park et al, All-Glass 100 mm Diameter Visual Metalens for Imaging the Cosmos, ACS Nano (2024). DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.3c09462
Magazine data:
ACS Nano
