Compact meta-optics infrared camera based on a polarization-insensitive metalens with a large field of view.

Abstract

Metasurfaces have recently emerged as a crucial tool because they achieve spherical-aberration-free focusing when exposed to normal incident light. Nevertheless, these metasurfaces often exhibit considerable coma when subjected to oblique incident light, thereby limiting their imaging field of view. In light of this, our study presents the design and an experimental demonstration of a polarization-insensitive, large-field-of-view metalens that uses a silicon metasurface. The metalens is specifically tailored to the long-wavelength infrared region and possesses a numerical aperture of 0.81, which is capable of focusing light at incident angles up to ±80°. Moreover, we successfully build a meta-optics camera by integrating the large field-of-view metalens on top of an image sensor, thus enabling wide-angle thermal imaging of practical scenes. This research provides new, to the best of our knowledge, insights for designing and realizing large-field-of-view optical systems and holds promise for applications in night vision imaging and security monitoring.