3D Printed Multilayer Structures for Achromatic Lenses

A remarkable development is taking place in the field of optical technologies that could revolutionize the performance of lenses and optical devices. Researchers have recently found a way to design multilayer achromatic metalenses that are broadband, polarization-independent and high-resolution. This innovation was achieved by combining topology optimization and full-wave simulations and implemented using two-photon lithography in a 3D printing process.

The team led by Cheng-Feng Pan and colleagues from Singapore and China demonstrated the broadband imaging performance of the developed structures under white light as well as red, green and blue narrowband illuminations. The key advance of this research is the ability of the 3D-printed multilayer structures to realize broadband and multifunctional meta-devices. The results of this groundbreaking work have been published in the journal Science Advances and grace the cover of the issue.

Metalenses have already shown impressive advances in imaging performance at micro and macro scales, which is significant for a variety of applications. Achromatic lenses in particular enable a broadband response to capture color information, expanding the design and application scenarios for photonic devices.

The challenge in developing these metalenses was the complexity of their structures, which has now been overcome by 3D printing. The research team used three-dimensional printing to overcome the manufacturing challenges of the multi-layered achromatic metal lenses. By using two-photon polymerization, the scientists realized a variety of 3D designs.

The multilayer achromatic metalenses presented in this work demonstrate unprecedented performance efficiency by taking advantage of nanoscale high-resolution 3D printing to create metalenses with exceptional performance. This development inspires a new paradigm for the design and fabrication of multifunctional broadband optical elements and devices.

The results show high focusing efficiency and imaging performance of the metalenses, highlighting the capacity of these lenses to eliminate chromatic aberrations. The researchers optimized the parameters to show how the multilayer achromatic metalenses achieve high focusing efficiency with broadband performance and topological optimization.

In summary, the results overcome the limitations of single-layer flat optics and extend the performance of metalenses to broadband functions while maintaining a high numerical aperture. The use of higher resolution 3D printing methods and high refractive index materials will contribute to an enhanced, multifunctional optical system that operates with a broadband response range that extends beyond the visible range to include near or mid-infrared regions.