English

Visible metalenses with high focusing efficiency fabricated using nanoimprint lithography

Optics 2023-12-22 v1 Applied Physics

Abstract

Metasurfaces enable precise control over the properties of light and hold promise for commercial applications. However, fabricating visible metasurfaces suitable for high-volume production is challenging and requires scalable processes. Nanoimprint lithography is a cost-effective and high-throughput technique that can meet this scalability requirement. This work presents a mask-templating nanoimprint lithography process for fabricating metasurfaces with varying fill factors and negligible wavefront aberrations using composite stamps. As a proof-of-concept, a 6 mm diameter metalens formed of silicon nitride nano-posts with a numerical aperture of 0.2 that operates at 550 nm is demonstrated. The nanoimprinted metalens achieves a peak focusing efficiency of (81±181\pm1)%, comparable to the control metalens made with electron beam lithography with a focusing efficiency of (89±189\pm1)%. Spatially resolved deflection efficiency and wavefront data, which informs design and process optimization, is also presented. These results highlight nanoimprint lithography as a cost-effective, scalable method for visible metasurface fabrication that has the potential for widespread adoption in consumer electronics and imaging systems.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2312.13851,
  title  = {Visible metalenses with high focusing efficiency fabricated using nanoimprint lithography},
  author = {Andrew McClung and Mahsa Torfeh and Vincent J. Einck and James J. Watkins and Amir Arbabi},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2312.13851},
  year   = {2023}
}