Efficient light control: Meta-optics replace conventional lenses

This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Advanced light control: A laser beam hits a meta-grating that directs the light waves even at steep incidence angles, thus enabling new optical applications. Credit: Maryna Leonidivna Meretska Conventional curved lenses, which direct light by refraction in glass or plastic, are often bulky and heavy, offering only limited control of light waves. Metasurfaces, in contrast, are flat and consist of an array of tiny structures known as meta-atoms. Meta-atoms influence light at a subwavelength scale and thus allow for highly precise control of the phase, amplitude, and polarization of light. "Using metasurfaces, we can influence the temporal shift, intensity, and direction of oscillation of light waves in a targeted way," says Dr. Maryna Leonidivna Meretska, Group Leader at KIT's Institute of Nanotechnology. ... Read full article.