Miniature color camera via flat hybrid meta-optics.

Pinilla, Samuel; Fröch, Johannes E; Miri Rostami, Seyyed Reza; Katkovnik, Vladimir; Shevkunov, Igor; Majumdar, Arka; Egiazarian, Karen · Sci Adv · 2023

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

The race for miniature color cameras using flat meta-optics has rapidly developed the end-to-end design framework using neural networks. Although a large body of work has shown the potential of this methodology, the reported performance is still limited due to fundamental limitations coming from meta-optics, mismatch between simulated and resultant experimental point spread functions, and calibration errors. Here, we use a HIL optics design methodology to solve these limitations and demonstrate a miniature color camera via flat hybrid meta-optics (refractive + meta-mask). The resulting camera achieves high-quality full-color imaging for a 5-mm aperture optics with a focal length of 5 mm. We observed a superior quality of the images captured by the hybrid meta-optical camera compared to a compound multi-lens optics of a mirrorless commercial camera.