Engineers Develop Optical Devices That Shape Light in Exotic WaysEngineers from the Jet Propulsion L

Engineers Develop Optical Devices That Shape Light in Exotic Ways

Engineers from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the California Institute of Technology have developed innovative flat, optical lenses that are capable of manipulating light in ways that are difficult or impossible to achieve with conventional optical devices.

The new lenses are not made of glass. Instead, silicon nanopillars are precisely arranged into a honeycomb pattern to create a “metasurface” that can control the paths and properties of passing light waves.

Applications of these devices include advanced microscopes, displays, sensors, and cameras that can be mass-produced using the same techniques used to manufacture computer microchips.

“These flat lenses will help us to make more compact and robust imaging assemblies,” said Mahmood Bagheri, a microdevices engineer at JPL and co-author of a new Nature Nanotechnology study describing the devices.

“Currently, optical systems are made one component at a time, and the components are often manually assembled,” said Andrei Faraon, an assistant professor of applied physics and materials science at Caltech, and the study’s principal investigator. “But this new technology is very similar to the one used to print semiconductor chips onto silicon wafers, so you could conceivably manufacture millions of systems such as microscopes or cameras at a time.”

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