Inverse design enables large-scale high-performance meta-optics reshaping virtual reality

PubDate: Apr 2021

Teams: Harvard University；Massachusetts Institute of Technology；, Korea Institute of Science and Technology；National University of Singapore

Writers: Zhaoyi Li, Raphaël Pestourie, Joon-Suh Park, Yao-Wei Huang, Steven G. Johnson, Federico Capasso

PDF: Inverse design enables large-scale high-performance meta-optics reshaping virtual reality

Abstract

Meta-optics has achieved major breakthroughs in the past decade; however, conventional forward design faces challenges as functionality complexity and device size scale up. Inverse design aims at optimizing meta-optics design but has been currently limited by expensive brute-force numerical solvers to small devices, which are also difficult to realize experimentally. Here, we present a general inverse design framework for aperiodic large-scale complex meta-optics in three dimensions, which alleviates computational cost for both simulation and optimization via a fast-approximate solver and an adjoint method, respectively. Our framework naturally accounts for fabrication constraints via a surrogate model. In experiments, we demonstrate, for the first time, aberration-corrected metalenses working in the visible with high numerical aperture, poly-chromatic focusing, and large diameter up to centimeter scale. Such large-scale meta-optics opens a new paradigm for applications, and we demonstrate its potential for future virtual-reality platforms by using a meta-eyepiece and a laser back-illuminated micro-Liquid Crystal Display.