Metasurface Photonics

The Mid-and Long-Infrared (mid-IR and LW-IR)spectral region (~3to 12 um) is very important for many military, biomedical,and industrial applications. Most conventional optical device materials materials are opaque to these wavelengths (>3 μm).Mid-(and LW-) IR optics are much more expensive and often have lower quality than visible or near-infrared optical components. Conversely, optical meta surfaces (artificial or artificially structured materials) with wavelength-scale thicknesses and, in some cases, on-demand electromagnetic responses, offer a promising solution for cost-effective, high-performance ultra-compact infrared optics. Traditional lenses (visible or IR) use a piece of curved glass to focus light, but to reduce distortions or cover a longer zoom range,multiple optics are used,creating large and weighty telephoto lenses or giant telescopes. The metamaterial lens (metalens) is flat,reducing much of the distortion, physical size,weight and, importantly, the need for many layers of optical lenses. It is important to note that metalenses can be readily fabricated using standard semiconductor mass production lithography techniques enabling low cost large area high-volume optics manufacturing. This SBIR project is designing, fabricating, packaging, testing,and implementing flat metalenses for Mid-IR and LW-IR applications by producing and delivering flat optics materials with industrial scale process.