High-NA and broadband achromatic metalens for sub-diffraction focusing of long-wavelength infrared waves

The recently developed achromatic metalenses have exhibited a significant potential to replace the conventional bulky lenses. However, the numerical aperture (NA) of current broadband achromatic metalenses (BAMs) operated in long-wavelength infrared (LWIR) range is still insufficient for the applications of microscopy or high-resolution imaging. To address the restriction, a BAM with high NA for sub-diffraction focusing in LWIR waves is proposed. Specifically, the multipole decomposition is performed to avoid the undesirable resonances in the operation wavelength from 9 to 11 mu m, which ensures the great linearity of the phase profiles from meta-atoms. After elaborately arranging the meta-atoms to compose a high-NA BAM, numerical results demonstrate that the chromatic aberration is well corrected in the operation wavelength and the maximum deviation is only 3.95%. Moreover, the actual NA of proposed BAM reaches up to 0.79 and the transverse sizes of focal spots are beyond the Abbe diffraction limit. The results indicate that the proposed high-NA BAM may have promising potential in the broadband applications of high-resolution imaging and microscopy.

Automated summary

The recently developed achromatic metalenses have the potential to replace bulky conventional lenses, but current broadband achromatic metalenses (BAMs) in the long-wavelength infrared (LWIR) range have insufficient numerical aperture (NA) for microscopy or high-resolution imaging. To address this, a BAM with high NA for sub-diffraction focusing in LWIR waves is proposed. The proposed high-NA BAM shows well-corrected chromatic aberration, with a maximum deviation of only 3.95%, and has the potential for broadband applications in high-resolution imaging and microscopy.