Excerpt from OSA feature: “Flat Lens Could Create New Opportunities in Electronics, Telecommunications and Microscopy“
Researchers have created a new optical lens that is flat, rather than curved like traditional glass lenses. The unique optical properties available from the flat lens could help reduce the size of computer hard drives and create exceptionally small microscopes, among other applications.
We’ve shown a new way to control light
said Ruben Maas, who carried out the research in Albert Polman’s research group at the Center for Nanophotonics, FOM Institute AMOLF, The Netherlands.
This new type of optical element will hopefully enable new types of optical devices that are much smaller than what we’ve seen up until now.
In The Optical Society’s journal for high impact research, Optica, the researchers detail the fabrication and characterization of their new lens, which is made of extremely thin layers of silver and titanium dioxide. The flat lens offers properties not available from traditional lenses including a larger field of view and a very short working distance that allows it to be placed very close to an object of interest.
Reference
Planar metal-dielectric single-periodic multilayer ultraviolet flat lens
R. Maas, J. van de Groep, A. Polman, Optica 3, 592 (2016).
