High efficiency glass-based VUV metasurfaces
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: Most advances in metaoptics have been made at visible wavelengths and above; in contrast, the vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) has barely been explored despite numerous scientific and technological opportunities. Creating metaoptic elements at this short wavelength is challenging due to the scarcity of VUV transparent materials and the small sizes of the required nanostructures. Here, we present the first transmissive VUV (175 nm) metalens. By using UV-grade silica and trading off the Nyquist requirement for subwavelength structures against feasibility of the fabrication process, we achieve a step-change in diffraction efficiencies for wavelengths shorter than 300 nm. Our large numerical aperture (NA=0.5) metalens shows an average diffraction efficiency of (53.3±1.4)%. This demonstration opens up new avenues for compact flat optic systems operating in the VUV range.
Source: Optica
Authors: Augusto Martins, Taylor Contreras, Chris Stanford, Mirald Tuzi, Justo Martín-Albo, Carlos O. Escobar, Adam Para, Alexander Kish, Joon-Suh Park, Thomas F. Krauss, Roxanne Guenette
Language: English
Field: Materials Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $3,208
OpenAlex ID: W4414436486