2021/01/15 by Mahdad Mansouree, Andrew McClung, Mansouree, Mahdad +5 · 2 citations
Engineering · Materials Science · #Advanced Antenna and Metasurface Technologies #FOS: Physical sciences #Metamaterials and Metasurfaces Applications #Optics (physics.optics) #Thermal Radiation and Cooling Technologies
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2101.06292
openalex publication_date 2021/01/15 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Optical metasurfaces are planar arrangements of subwavelength meta-atoms that implement a wide range of transformations on incident light. The design of efficient metasurfaces requires that the responses of and interactions among meta-atoms are accurately modeled. Conventionally, each meta-atom's response is approximated by that of a meta-atom located in a periodic array. Although this approximation is accurate for metastructures with slowly varying meta-atoms, it does not accurately model the complex interactions among meta-atoms in more rapidly varying metasurfaces. Optimization-based design techniques that rely on full-wave simulations mitigate this problem but thus far have been mostly applied to topology optimization of small metasurfaces. Here, we describe an adjoint-optimization-based design technique that uses parameterized meta-atoms. Our technique has a lower computational cost than topology optimization approaches, enabling the design of large-scale metasurfaces that can be readily fabricated. As proof of concept, we present the design and experimental demonstration of high numerical aperture metalenses with significantly higher efficiencies than their conventionally-designed counterparts.