Interplay of polarization sensitivity and bandwidth in wide-field-of-view meta-optics

• DOI: 10.1364/ome.558858
• Publication Date: 2025-03-13T16:00:27Z
• Authors: Isma Javed; Yousaf Murtaza Rind; Azhar Javed Satti; Muhammad Ashar Na...; Miltcho Danailov; Humberto Cabrera; Muhammad Zubair; Muhammad Qasim Me...

Metasurfaces-based optics have emerged as a promising next-generation design platform for novel optical and computational paradigms poised to disrupt information and communication technologies. Among the various applications of metasurfaces, imaging has become a key focus in optics due to its potential to address diverse requirements in fields like microscopy, surveillance, and data storage. Metasurface-based imaging offers a compact and efficient alternative for high-performance optical systems, drawing multidisciplinary interest across technology and research sectors. Polarization-insensitive broadband wide field of view (WFOV) design presents an important combination of characteristics enabling advanced microscopy and general-purpose imaging. Although designs addressing individual characteristics exist, a cohesive approach is lacking. This article presents broadband, polarization-insensitive WFOV metasurface operating in the ultraviolet (UV) range with a high numerical aperture (NA). Simple anisotropic rectangular bars of hafnium oxide (HfO2) on a glass substrate are optimized to produce consistent outputs across all incident polarizations. The proposed design strategy is validated through extensive simulations, ensuring the device's high performance. The unique design features of high NA, simplicity, and broadband polarization independence offer promising applications in holography, imaging, augmented reality/virtual reality, displays, and microscopy.