Broadband achromatic metasurfaces for sub-diffraction focusing in the visible

Conventional achromatic optical systems are matured to achieve effective chromatic aberration correction and diffraction-limited resolution by the multiple bulky lenses. The emergence of the super-oscillation phenomenon provides an effective method for non-invasive far-field super-resolution imaging. Nevertheless, most super-oscillatory lenses are significantly restricted by the chromatic aberration due to the reliance on delicate interference; on the other hand, most achromatic lenses cannot break the diffraction limit. In this article, a single-layer broadband achromatic metasurface comprising sub-wavelength anisotropic nanostructures has been proposed to achieve sub-diffraction focusing with a focal length of f=60 mu m and a diameter of 20 mu m in the visible ranging from 400 nm to 700 nm, which are capable of generating sub-diffraction focal spots under the left-handed circularly polarized incident light with arbitrary wavelength in the working bandwidth at the same focal plane. This method may find promising potentials in various applications such as super-resolution color imaging, light field cameras, and machine vision. (C) 2021 Optical Society of America under the terms of the OSA Open Access Publishing Agreement

Automated summary

In this article, a single-layer broadband achromatic metasurface was proposed to achieve sub-diffraction focusing in the visible range. It is capable of generating sub-diffraction focal spots under left-handed circularly polarized incident light with arbitrary wavelength at the same focal plane, showing promising potentials in various applications.