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Tag: metalenses

Ultra-flat optic pushes beyond what was previously thought possible

In a first-of-its-kind achievement, a team of researchers at the University of Washington and Princeton University, co-led by NanoES faculty member Arka Majumdar (electrical & computer engineering, physics) and including NanoES director Karl Böhringer (ECE, bioengineering), has shown that a camera containing a large aperture, ultra-flat optic can record high-quality color images and video comparable to what can be captured with a conventional camera lens. The metalens, developed at the Washington Nanofabrication Facility (WNF), is hundreds of times smaller and thinner than a conventional camera lens, offering substantial savings in volume, weight, and device battery life.

Optics startup Tunoptix wins federal grant to develop metalenses for imaging satellites at Washington Nanofabrication Facility

A portion of the team’s experimental setup for capturing an image using a metalens. The researchers capture an image of flowers through a metalens (mounted on a microscope slide) and visualize it through a microscope.

Tunoptix, an optics startup co-founded by University of Washington (UW) electrical and computer engineering professors Karl Böhringer and Arka Majumdar, was awarded $223,000 in Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) funding from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to develop metasurface lenses (or metalenses) for imaging in satellites at the UW Washington Nanofabrication Facility.