A universal metasurface transfer technique for heterogeneous integration

Metasurfaces offer a versatile platform for engineering the wavefront of light using nanostructures with subwavelength dimensions and hold great promise for dramatically miniaturizing conventional optical elements due to their small footprint and broad functionality. However, metasurfaces so far have been mainly demonstrated on bulky and planar substrates that are often orders of magnitude thicker than the metasurface itself. Conventional substrates not only nullify the reduced footprint advantage of metasurfaces, but also limit their application scenarios. The bulk substrate also determines the metasurface dielectric environment, with potentially undesired optical effects that undermine the optical performance. Here we develop a universal polymer-assisted transfer technique to tackle this challenge by decoupling the substrate employed on the fabrication of metasurfaces from that used for the target application. As an example, Huygens' metasurfaces with 120 nm thickness in the visible range (532 nm) are demonstrated to be transferred onto a 100 nm thick freestanding SiN x membrane while maintaining excellent structural integrity and optical performance of diffraction-limited focusing. This transfer method not only enables the thinnest dielectric metalens to the best of our knowledge, but also opens up new opportunities in integrating cascaded and multilayer metasurfaces, as well as the heterogeneous integration with nonconventional substrates and various electronic/photonic devices.

Automated summary

Metasurfaces, a versatile platform for manipulating light waves using nanostructures, have the potential to greatly reduce the size of conventional optical elements. However, current metasurfaces are mainly demonstrated on bulky and thick substrates, which limits their application scenarios. A polymer-assisted transfer technique is developed to decouple the fabrication substrate from the target application, allowing the transfer of thin metasurfaces onto different substrates. This technique enables the thinnest dielectric metalens and opens up new opportunities for integrated multilayer metasurfaces and heterogeneous integration with nonconventional substrates and electronic/photonic devices.