Highly Efficient Broadband Achromatic Microlens Design Based on Low-Dispersion Materials

Metalenses with achromatic performance offer a new opportunity for high-quality imaging with an ultracompact configuration;however,they suffer from complex fabrication processes and low focusing efficiency.In this study,we propose an efficient design method for achromatic microlenses on a wavelength scale using materials with low dispersion,an adequately designed convex surface,and a thickness profile distribution.By taking into account the absolute chromatic aberration,relative focal length shift(FLS),and numerical aperture(NA),microlens with a certain focal length can be realized through our realized map of geometric features.Accordingly,the designed achromatic microlenses with low-dispersion fused silica were fabricated using a focused ion beam,and precise surface profiles were obtained.The fabricated microlenses exhibited a high average focusing efficiency of 65%at visible wavelengths of 410-680 nm and excellent achromatic capability via white light imaging.Moreover,the design exhibited the advantages of being polarization-insensitive and near-diffraction-limited.These results demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed achromatic microlens design approach,which expands the prospects of miniaturized optics such as virtual and augmented reality,ultracompact microscopes,and biological endoscopy.

Single-layer broadband planar antenna using ultrathin high-efficiency focusing metasurfaces

Phase gradient metasurfaces（PGMS） offer a fascinating ability to control the amplitude and phase of the electromagnetic（EM） waves on a subwavelength scale, resulting in new applications of designing novel microwave devices with improved performances. In this paper, a reflective symmetrical element, consisting of orthogonally I-shaped structures, has been demonstrated with an approximately parallel phase response from 15 GHz to 22 GHz, which results in an interesting wideband property. For practical design, a planar antenna is implemented by a well-optimized focusing metasurface and excited by a self-designed Vivaldi antenna at the focus. Numerical and experimental results coincide well. The planar antenna has a series of merits such as a wide 3-d B gain bandwidth of 15–22 GHz, an average gain enhancement of 16 d B, a comparable aperture efficiency of better than 45% at 18 GHz, and also a simple fabrication process. The proposed reflective metasurface opens up a new avenue to design wideband microwave devices.

Three-dimensional ultrasound subwavelength arbitrary focusing with broadband sparse metalens

Ultrasound focusing in three-dimensional(3 D)space is of crucial and enduring significance in a variety of biomedical and industrial applications.Conventional ultrasound focusing based on active phase array or passive geometry of bulky size is unable to realize the 3 D arbitrary focusing with subwavelength resolution.Acoustic metamaterial of complex deep-subwavelength microstructure has facilitated the advanced airborne-sound-focusing but is inevitably not applicable for underwater ultrasound,restricted by the law between the multi-modes coupling/thermal viscosity and the feature size of the structure.Here,we aim to circumvent the restriction by increasing the feature size of the metamaterial while keeping the compact overall geometry,and realize the robust subwavelength ultrasound focusing with the sparse metalens of the wavelength-scale meta-atom.We theoretically propose and demonstrate numerically and experimentally the broadband arbitrary ultrasound focusing in 3 D space.The axial and off-axis ultrasound focusing with the subwavelength resolution(FWHM<0.58λ)are achieved by the spatially sparse and compact metalens within one-octave bandwidth.With advantages of 3 D freewheeling focusing,subwavelength resolution,spatial sparsity,geometric simplicity,and broadband,the sparse metalens would offer more initiatives to advanced researches in ultrasound focusing and empower applications such as precise biomedical imaging and therapy,nondestructive evaluation,integrated and multiplexed ultrasound devices.