CN-122029460-A - Design of optical element with super surface

Abstract

An optical element having a super surface composed of super atoms and a method of manufacturing an optical element having a super surface composed of super atoms are disclosed. The method may include defining a lattice corresponding to a surface of the optical element to be formed. In one example, the design process allows at least some of the super-atoms to move freely within the crystal lattice or within their respective unit cells. An example optical element may have a supersurface comprised of non-periodically laid out superatoms.

Inventors

• Ulrich Kuard
• U. M. Gul
• Y. Elisin

Assignees

• 尼尔技术有限责任公司

Dates

Publication Date

20260512

Application Date

20240808

Priority Date

20230809

Claims (19)

1. 1. A method of manufacturing an optical element having a super surface composed of super atoms, the method comprising: (a) Defining a lattice corresponding to a surface on which the optical element is to be formed; (b) Providing an initial layout for the superlattice in the lattice, wherein a respective superlattice is assigned to each respective unit cell of the lattice; (c) Modifying at least one design parameter of the superatoms to aim at achieving a target optical function of the optical element based on the modified layout of the superatoms, wherein modifying at least one design parameter comprises allowing at least some of the superatoms to move freely within the lattice; (d) Repeating (c) until the modified layout achieves an optical function within a specified range of the target optical function; (e) Manufacturing the optical element, wherein the optical element has a layout for the super atom determined by the latest execution result of (d).
2. 2. The method of claim 1, wherein allowing at least some of the super-atoms to move freely within the lattice comprises constraining at least some of the super-atoms such that at least a portion of the super-atoms remain within the respective unit cell to which the super-atoms are assigned.
3. 3. The method of claim 2, wherein allowing at least some of the super-atoms to move freely within the lattice comprises constraining at least a specified percentage of the super-atoms, the constraint being that at least a portion of the super-atoms remain within the respective unit cells to which the super-atoms are assigned.
4. 4. The method of claim 1, wherein allowing at least some of the super-atoms to move freely within the lattice comprises constraining at least some of the super-atoms such that a center of the super-atoms remains within a respective unit cell to which the super-atoms are assigned.
5. 5. The method of claim 4, wherein allowing at least some of the super-atoms to move freely within the lattice comprises constraining at least a specified percentage of the super-atoms such that a center of the super-atoms remains within a respective unit cell to which the super-atoms are assigned.
6. 6. The method of claim 1, wherein allowing at least some of the superatoms to freely move within the lattice comprises constraining at least some of the superatoms to remain entirely within the respective unit cell to which the superatoms are assigned.
7. 7. The method of claim 6, wherein allowing at least some of the superatoms to freely move within the lattice comprises constraining at least a specified percentage of the superatoms to remain entirely within the respective unit cell to which the superatoms are assigned.
8. 8. The method of any of claims 1-7, wherein fabricating the optical element comprises fabricating an optical element having a super-atom of a non-periodic layout.
9. 9. The method of any one of claims 1 to 8, wherein at least some of the superatoms are offset from the center of the respective unit cell in which they are located.
10. 10. The method of any one of claims 1 to 9, wherein the lattice has square unit cells.
11. 11. The method of any one of claims 1 to 9, wherein the lattice has rectangular unit cells.
12. 12. The method of any one of claims 1 to 8, wherein the lattice has hexagonal unit cells.
13. 13. The method of any one of claims 1 to 12, wherein the optical element is a superlens.
14. 14. An apparatus, comprising: an optical element having a supersurface comprised of non-periodically arranged superatoms.
15. 15. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the average density of the superatoms is non-uniform.
16. 16. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the superlattice is arranged in a crystal lattice, and wherein an average density of the superlattice in the crystal lattice is substantially uniform.
17. 17. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the superatoms are arranged in a square lattice of square unit cells, each of the superatoms being in a respective one of the square unit cells.
18. 18. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the super-atoms are arranged in a hexagonal lattice of hexagonal unit cells, each of the super-atoms being in a respective one of the hexagonal unit cells.
19. 19. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the super-atoms are arranged in a rectangular lattice of rectangular unit cells, each of the super-atoms being in a respective one of the rectangular unit cells.

Description

Design of optical element with super surface Technical Field The present disclosure relates to the design of optical elements having a supersurface. Background Advanced optical elements may include supersurfaces, which refers to surfaces having distributed small structures (e.g., superatoms) arranged to interact with light in a specific manner. For example, superlenses are composed of well-arranged superatoms (e.g., nanostructures of a distributed array) having sub-wavelength structures. By adjusting the geometry of the superatom, the phase over the element can be modified in response to the plane wave. The initial step of designing the superlens may include defining a target phase profile of the superlens. In the case of lenses having a spherical or cylindrical shape, analytical formulas may be used to define the phase distribution. In a more general case, it may be useful to represent the spatial phase data on a rectilinear grid. For example, a rectangular lattice may be used to construct an entire superlens by using square unit cells as building blocks. The radius of each super atom on each grid point may be calculated and a corresponding structure added to each grid. That is, a super atom (e.g., a nanorod or a nanopillar) having a desired phase is placed at the center of each unit cell in the lattice. In this way, a superlens with a specific phase distribution can be created. Disclosure of Invention The present disclosure describes techniques for designing a superoptical element (MOE) such as a superlens, and the resulting designs and structures for the optical element. For example, in one aspect, the present disclosure describes a method of manufacturing an optical element having a super surface composed of super atoms. The method includes (a) defining a lattice corresponding to a surface of an optical element to be formed, (b) providing an initial layout for the superlattice in the lattice, wherein a respective superlattice is assigned to each respective unit cell of the lattice, and (c) modifying at least one design parameter of the superlattice to aim at achieving a target optical function of the optical element based on the modified layout of the superlattice. Modifying the at least one design parameter includes allowing at least some of the superlattice to move freely within the crystal lattice. The method further includes (d) repeating (c) until the modified layout achieves an optical function within a specified range of the target optical function, and (e) fabricating an optical element, wherein the optical element has a layout for the super atom determined by the latest execution result of (d). Some implementations include one or more of the following features. For example, in some embodiments, allowing at least some of the superlattice to move freely within the crystal lattice includes constraining at least some of the superlattice to remain at least a portion of the superlattice within a respective unit cell to which the superlattice is assigned. In some embodiments, allowing at least some of the super-atoms to move freely within the lattice includes constraining at least a specified percentage of the super-atoms such that at least a portion of the super-atoms remain within the respective unit cells to which the super-atoms are assigned. In some embodiments, allowing at least some of the superlattice to move freely within the crystal lattice includes constraining at least some of the superlattice such that a center of the superlattice remains within a respective unit cell to which the superlattice is assigned. In some embodiments, allowing at least some of the superlattice to move freely within the crystal lattice includes constraining at least a specified percentage of the superlattice to maintain a center of the superlattice within a respective unit cell to which the superlattice is assigned. In some embodiments, allowing at least some of the superlattice to move freely within the crystal lattice includes constraining at least some of the superlattice to remain entirely within its respective unit cell. In some embodiments, allowing at least some of the superlattice to move freely within the crystal lattice includes constraining at least a specified percentage of the superlattice to remain entirely within its respective unit cell. In some embodiments, the optical element has a super-atom in a non-periodic layout. In some embodiments, at least some of the superatoms are offset from the center of the corresponding unit cell in which the superatoms are located. In some embodiments, the lattice has square cells, rectangular cells, or hexagonal cells. In some embodiments, the optical element is a superlens. The present disclosure also describes an apparatus that includes an optical element having a supersurface comprised of non-periodically laid out superatoms. In some embodiments, the average density of the super atoms (i.e., the number of super atoms per unit area) is non-uniform. In some embod