Metalenses—flat surfaces that use nanostructures to focus light—promise to revolutionize optics by replacing the bulky, curved lenses currently used in optical devices with a simple, flat surface. But, these metalenses have remained limited in the spectrum of light they can focus well. Now a team of researchers at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) has developed the first single lens that can focus the entire visible spectrum of light—including white light—in the same spot and in high resolution. This has only ever been achieved in conventional lenses by stacking multiple lenses.
The research is published in Nature Nanotechnology.
Focusing the entire visible spectrum and white light - combination of all the colors of the spectrum—is so challenging because each wavelength moves through materials at different speeds. Red wavelengths, for example, will move through glass faster than the blue, so the two colors will reach the same location at different times resulting in different foci. This creates image distortions known as chromatic aberrations.
Cameras and optical instruments use multiple curved lenses of different thicknesses and materials to correct these aberrations, which, of course, adds to the bulk of the device.
"Metalenses have advantages over traditional lenses," says Federico Capasso, the Robert L. Wallace Professor of Applied Physics and Vinton Hayes Senior Research Fellow in Electrical Engineering at SEAS and senior author of the research. "Metalenses are thin, easy to fabricate and cost effective. This breakthrough extends those advantages across the whole visible range of light. This is the next big step."
https://phys.org/news/2018-01-metalens-focuses-rainbow-possibilities-virtual.html
A broadband achromatic metalens for focusing and imaging in the visible, Nature Nanotechnology (2018). nature.com/articles/doi:10.1038/s41565-017-0034-6
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(Score: 2) by Snotnose on Wednesday January 03 2018, @02:36AM (4 children)
/ I should add a comment
// I should make another drink
/// I should wonder why my vodak bottle is mt again. We Have The Technology!
When the dust settled America realized it was saved by a porn star.
(Score: 5, Funny) by takyon on Wednesday January 03 2018, @02:53AM (3 children)
You can't even focus a single image bro.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 4, Funny) by Snotnose on Wednesday January 03 2018, @03:06AM (1 child)
Long as it's a naked female body that is not my wife, I can focus just fine thankyewverrymuch.
A bachelor looks in the fridge, then goes to bed
A married guy looks in the bed, then goes to the fridge
When the dust settled America realized it was saved by a porn star.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 03 2018, @04:25AM
A pessimist sees the glass as half empty.
An optimist sees the glass as half full.
An engineer sees the glass as being twice as big as it needs to be.
I see the glass as having room for vodka.
(Score: 2) by Bot on Wednesday January 03 2018, @11:15AM
Which one of the two?
Account abandoned.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Wednesday January 03 2018, @04:38AM (2 children)
It's a VR revolution! Because it's less heavy and bulky!
http://www.valuewalk.com/2018/01/new-metalens-technology-vr-ar/ [valuewalk.com]
http://www.newsweek.com/metalens-focuses-entire-light-spectrum-color-one-focus-virtual-reality-767931 [newsweek.com]
https://www.siliconrepublic.com/machines/ar-vr-new-technologies [siliconrepublic.com]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 03 2018, @08:14AM (1 child)
Makes me think of a Fresnel lens [google.com] that is flat and will fit in your wallet [google.com] (compared to a traditional magnifying glass).
Damned Frenchies and their spelling/pronunciation. [google.com]
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Wednesday January 03 2018, @03:56PM
Indeed. It also brings to mind the fact that I've never seen a fesnel lens that I'd want to use for more than a minute or two at a time. Maybe it's just chromatic aberration from all the concentric prisms, but the things are unpleasant to use. Even in the first few minutes, before the grooves get inevitably packed with crud. (Some aren't so bad - but I've never seen one I'd call good)
Of course these meta-lenses on an entirely different principle, so we can at least hope they'll be more pleasant to use.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 03 2018, @04:40AM (1 child)
Single Metalens avoids chromatic aberrations in flat form factor.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 03 2018, @11:12AM
The other TLDR:
"curved lenses now quaint, apps soon adding CA and distortion filters to the fake flare one"
(Score: 3, Funny) by Bot on Wednesday January 03 2018, @11:14AM (1 child)
> the entire visible spectrum of light—including white light...
I think it would be a feat if it excluded WHITE light from the ENTIRE VISIBLE SPECTRUM instead...
Account abandoned.
(Score: 2) by realDonaldTrump on Thursday January 04 2018, @10:19AM
Political correctness has gone much too far. I've been challenged by so many people and I don't, frankly, have time for total political correctness.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Immerman on Wednesday January 03 2018, @04:05PM
From the article
"Metalenses are thin, easy to fabricate and cost effective."
Also from the article
"Next, the researchers aim to scale up the lens, to about 1 cm in diameter. This would open a whole host of new possibilities, such as applications in virtual and augmented reality."
Hmm, I'm getting a slight tingle of cognitive dissonance here... So easy to fabricate that they're hoping to be able to build something of a useful size any year now? Definitely a major advantage over current lenses which are mass-produced in a wide range of sizes.
(Score: 2) by clone141166 on Sunday January 07 2018, @02:08PM
Cool