Metaoptics: Disruptive technologies that you didn't foresee

A review of the evolving field of meta-optics found that robots and autonomous vehicles will have much more eyes than the human eye can see
.

Meta-optics is advancing science and technology far beyond the 3,000-year-old optical paradigm we rely on visual human-machine interfaces, such as through cameras in mobile phones, microscopes, drones, and lenses
in telescopes.
Optics are the technological bottleneck that meta-optics aims to transform, bringing things from science fiction stories into everyday devices
.

This field flourished at the beginning of the 21st century, thanks to the concept of a material with a negative refractive index that can form perfect lenses, which has grown rapidly over the past five years and is now published with about 3,000 papers per year
.

This accelerated volume of research is beyond the reach of scientists and technicians, from leaders in meta-optics research, Professor Dragomir Neshev, Centre Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Transformational Meta-Optics Systems, Professor of Physics at the Australian National University, and Professor
Andrey Miroshnichenko of the University of New South Wales in Canberra.

"The biggest driver in the field of meta-optics comes from integrating meta-optics and devices into optical systems to provide optoelectronic applications
to consumers," the authors wrote.

"Importantly, meta-optics enable previously unimaginable new applications, adding to the so-called Industry 4.
0
.
These applications include the Internet of Things, autonomous vehicles, wearables, augmented reality, and remote sensing
.
”

The importance of this technology is illustrated by massive investments by industry giants such as Apple, Google, and Samsung, who have been recruiting graduates and investing in the field, especially in developing vision applications
.

But the authors note that in addition to vision, the non-traditional properties of meta-optics can also be used for optical sails, LiFi, and thermal management
.

These features come from the surface pattern of meta-optics using regular nanoscale structures, in contrast to
traditional mirror and lens optics.
The result was tiny components that scattered and manipulated light in a way that would have taken Isaac Newton by surprise
.

The first commercial components using these features are already on the market, with companies such as Metalenz, NILT Technologies and Meta Materials Inc offering planar metalenses, polarimetric imaging, microscopy, and biosensing
.

These devices are also capable of acquiring properties of light that cannot be detected by the human eye – such as polarization and phase, and can even be used to design, manipulate and quantum state light for quantum imaging, sensing, and communication
.

But the authors also identified challenges
in the field.
The first is manufacturing technology that can be extended to industrial processes (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor) that are compatible with current industry standard CMOS — especially since most meta-optics rely on transparent substrates, while CMOS does not
.

Second, they found the ability to make tunable or reconfigurable metamaterials to enable dynamic components—just as pixels on a TV screen can change color multiple times per second
—is elusive.

"This is an unresolved issue and we present major challenges
in this area.
This is a key factor in the field and everyone needs it now," Professor Neshev said
.

"There's a misconception that this is done — people take a small step forward and look far into the future
in their papers.
But in reality, no one can phase modulate
large arrays at the pixel level.
”

Professor Neshev said that if these challenges can be solved, then meta-optics have great potential
.

"As a platform, meta-optics is very flexible, and it can be applied to any product, such as mobile phones, computers, cars, satellites
.

"It miniaturizes optics in terms of size, weight and power; It enables human-machine interfaces that are not possible with conventional optics, such as 3D vision and augmented reality, which are very difficult in conventional optics," said
Prof.
Neshev.

"Finally, if we can modify the phase of the light passing through the component, then we will be able to do almost any image processing
.
This will be a major game-changer
.
”