'Metasurface' for 3D Imaging, AR/VR, and Efficient Automotive Lighting
Researchers from the University of Rochester have come up with a new technology that delivers augmented and virtual reality glasses that don’t look like "bug eyes." They imprinted freeform optics with a nanophotonic optical element called a metasurface. The metasurface is a cluster of tiny, silver, nanoscale structures on a thin metallic film that conforms, in this advance, to the freeform shape of the optics. Freeform optics is an emerging technology that uses lenses and mirrors with surfaces that lack an axis of symmetry within or outside the optics diameter to create optical devices that are light and compact. Applications include 3D imaging and visualization, augmented and virtual reality, infrared and military optical systems, efficient automotive and LED lighting, energy research, remote sensing, semiconductor manufacturing and inspection, and medical and assistive technologies.
Transcript
00:00:00 Augmented and virtual reality has long been popular for gaming, but in recent years, uses have expanded to many other applications. Early headworn displays offered a wide field of view, but were large and bulky. Some more compact options emerged around 2008, but they also have downsides. Some designs had limited brightness, while others had an undesirable "bug-eye" look. Researchers in the Institute of Optics at the University of Rochester created a new optical device that could deliver bright high-quality imagery and look very much like a typical pair of sunglasses. This device combines freeform optics with a conformed curved metasurface to create an optical component called a metaform. By nature, freeform optics are not bound by the symmetry most optics require, allowing for greater flexibility during the system design and making the envisioned optical systems lighter and more compact. Metasurfaces contain nanoscale structures
00:00:56 on a thin metallic film, which act like antennas, radiating light where it needs to be delivered. Combining these technologies allows visible light rays to be gathered from all directions, funneling them directly into the eye of the wearer, while maintaining high image resolution. The result is a technology that lends itself not just to more compact AR/VR eyewear, but the metaform may also find its way into applications ranging from LED lighting, to medical and military optical devices.