SC475

The course is focused on metasurfaces, sub-wavelength scale artificially structured metal-dielectric surfaces and upon their applications. Metasurfaces enable the redesign of optical components into thin, planar and multifunctional elements. This leads to a major reduction in thickness, in footprint and in system complexity and leads to ease of optical alignment and aberration control. As well, this leads to the introduction of new optical functions, thus circumventing the limitations of refractive and conventional diffractive optics. The planarity of flat optics facilitates the unification of semiconductor manufacturing and lens-making, where the planar technology to manufacture chips will be adapted to make CMOS compatible metasurface-based optical components for high volume markets and for specialty applications, ranging from metalenses to novel polarization optics and to multifunctional optical elements.

The required wavefront control underlying the desired functions is achieved by designing through dispersion engineering a library of optical elements that control the phase shift, the amplitude and the polarization of a light beam. This wavefront control is physically understood through a generalization of Huygens principle and is performed using a variety of simulation techniques. The Finite Difference Time Domain method to solve Maxwell’s equations will be introduced and applied to the design of a broad range of components. Topological optimization ad inverse design methods will be briefly discussed in the context of specific applications.

Design, fabrication and measurements of metalenses, holograms, multifunctional metasurfaces and waveplates will be covered with particular emphasis on polarization optics. Applications such as imaging, AR/VR (Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality), miniature spectrometers, polarimetry and fiber optics will be discussed.

This course should allow participants to achieve the following learning objectives in terms of a basic working knowledge of specific topics aimed at enabling their entry into the field of flat optics.

• Learn the physics of metasurfaces and principles to achieve wavefront control across the entire optical spectrum from the visible to far-infrared.
• Apply this knowledge to the design of meta-optical components to achieve the required metasurface phase profile for specific applications.
• Learn the basics of metasurface simulations through many specific real-world examples.
• Become knowledgeable of fabrication methods, tolerances, trade-offs and limitations.
• Become knowledgeable of present and future markets in terms of applications aimed at displacing or complementing present optical technology.

Graduate students, faculty, researchers and technical personnel active in academia, industry and
government labs. The only requirement to comprehend and benefit from the course is an undergraduate course in physics/applied physics/electrical engineering covering the basics of optics. The information presented in this course should also be useful to patent attorneys and to other legal professionals who are dealing with these topics.

Federico Capasso is a world leader in nanophotonics and principal contributor to metasurfaces and flat optics since their beginnings, and has widely lectured on these topics through plenary talks, tutorials and courses. He is the Robert Wallace Professor of Applied Physics at Harvard University, which he joined in 2003 after 27 years at Bell Labs where his career advanced from postdoctoral fellow to VP for Physical Research. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, the National Academy of Inventors and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the recipient of numerous international awards such as the Balzan Foundation Prize in Applied Optics, the King Faisal International Prize for Science, the Arthur Schawlow Prize of The American Physical Society (APS), The Rumford Prize of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, The Optical Society (OSA) Wood Prize and the IEEE Edison Medal. He is a Fellow of OSA, IEEE and APS.