Meta-lens Segmentation for Refractive Power and Chromatic Aberration Control
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Solution Overview
Problem
There is a challenge in miniaturizing optical lenses for devices like mobile and wearable devices due to difficulties in reducing lens thickness while maintaining optical performance, as refractive power increases with reduced curvature radius, leading to issues with high-order diffraction noise and chromatic aberration.
Innovation Solution
A meta-lens design featuring multiple regions with nanostructures arranged in a specific pattern based on different rules, providing refractive power across a wide wavelength band, including visible light, with polar symmetry and varying heights and intervals to control chromatic aberration.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Power
If the radius of curvature is reduced to increase refractive power, then the refractive power increases, but the lens thickness increases
Solution Approach 1:
The lens is divided into multiple regions (first region with first nanostructures, second region with second nanostructures, third region with third nanostructures) that have different refractive powers. This segmentation allows the lens to achieve high overall refractive power while maintaining thin thickness, as each region contributes differently to the total refraction without requiring increased lens thickness.
Solution Approach 2:
Different regions of the lens are assigned different local optical properties through varying nanostructure configurations. The first region has a first refractive power, the second region has a second refractive power different from the first, and the third region has a third refractive power. This local quality variation enables high refractive power in specific areas without uniformly increasing lens thickness.
2Length of stationary object
If a meta-surface is used to create a flat and thin lens, then the lens becomes flat and thin, but high-order diffraction noise occurs
Solution Approach 1:
The lens employs different nanostructure configurations in different regions to locally control optical properties. By varying the refractive power across regions (first region: first refractive power, second region: second refractive power, third region: third refractive power), the design suppresses high-order diffraction noise while maintaining the flat and thin meta-surface structure.
3Length of stationary object
If a meta-surface is used to create a flat and thin lens, then the lens becomes flat and thin, but difficulties arise in controlling chromatic aberration
Solution Approach 1:
The lens is segmented into multiple regions with different refractive powers and nanostructure configurations. This segmentation enables independent optimization of each region to control chromatic dispersion, allowing the thin meta-surface lens to effectively manage chromatic aberration across the visible light wavelength band.
Solution Approach 2:
The lens uses composite nanostructure designs combining different geometries (cylindrical columns, triangular columns, conical columns) and materials (semiconductor materials, metal materials, insulator materials) in different regions. This composite approach enables control of both refractive power and chromatic dispersion, achieving effective chromatic aberration control in a thin lens format.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The meta-lens achieves improved optical performance with reduced thickness, effectively managing refractive power and chromatic aberration across a wide wavelength band, enabling miniaturization of optical devices.
Implementation Method 1
a first region 120_1 including a plurality of first nanostructures NS1 that are two-dimensionally arranged in a radial direction and a circumferential direction, and a second region 120_2 surrounding the first region 1201, the second region 1202 including a plurality of second nanostructures NS2 that are two-dimensionally arranged in the radial direction and the circumferential direction
Implementation Method 2
A first interval between adjacent nanostructures of the plurality of first nanostructures and a second interval between adjacent nanostructures of the plurality of second nanostructures, respectively, may be less than λ, where λ is a wavelength of the incident light within the predetermined wavelength band
Data Source
AI summary
Provided is a meta-lens including a first region including a plurality of first nanostructures that are two-dimensionally provided in a circumferential direction and a radial direction, wherein the plurality of first nanostructures are provided based on a first rule, and a plurality of second regions surrounding the first region, each of the plurality of second regions including a plurality of second nanostructures that are two-dimensionally provided in a circumferential direction and a radial direction, wherein the plurality of second nanostructures are provided in each of the plurality of second regions based on a plurality of second rules, respectively, that are different from the first rule.