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| Format: | Preprint |
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2026
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| Online-Zugang: | https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.08880 |
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| _version_ | 1866911667182370816 |
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| author | Kalyan, Imon Chaudhary, Raghvendra P. Shitrit, Nir |
| author_facet | Kalyan, Imon Chaudhary, Raghvendra P. Shitrit, Nir |
| contents | Metasurfaces offer compact flat lenses (metalenses) for miniaturized imaging systems; however, the utmost miniaturization requires not only metalenses but also a substantial reduction of free space. A Spaceplate is a flat-optics element designed to mimic free-space propagation, effectively propagating light over a distance far exceeding its physical thickness, with the induced squeezed length serving as the key figure of merit. Despite substantial progress, most existing spaceplate designs have been fundamentally constrained by a trade-off between squeezed length and numerical aperture, and none has demonstrated a feasible structure supporting both a moderate numerical aperture and a millimeter-scale squeezed length. We report a metasurface spaceplate reaching the milestone of a millimeter-scale squeezed length with a practical numerical aperture. We achieved this by combining advantageous elements from existing approaches: high compression ratios and inverse-design flexibility in optimized multilayer metasurfaces, serving as the spaceplate unit structure, and preserving its numerical aperture by coupling its replicas, to construct a coupled cascaded spaceplate with an increased thickness. For operation in the mid-wave infrared, we demonstrated an optimized spaceplate exhibiting a high compression ratio of ~14 with a physical thickness of ~80 μm, resulting in a squeezed length of 1.09 mm, for a numerical aperture of 0.13. We developed a general framework for calculating the transmission characteristics of multilayered spaceplates while optimizing their layer thicknesses to accurately reproduce the target free space. Strikingly, millimeter-scale squeezed lengths with practical numerical apertures via metasurface spaceplates pave the way for ultrathin imaging systems through their utmost miniaturization, opening a new paradigm for augmented reality headsets, cellphones, and many more. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2605_08880 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2026 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Metasurface spaceplates reach a millimeter-scale squeezed length of free space Kalyan, Imon Chaudhary, Raghvendra P. Shitrit, Nir Optics Metasurfaces offer compact flat lenses (metalenses) for miniaturized imaging systems; however, the utmost miniaturization requires not only metalenses but also a substantial reduction of free space. A Spaceplate is a flat-optics element designed to mimic free-space propagation, effectively propagating light over a distance far exceeding its physical thickness, with the induced squeezed length serving as the key figure of merit. Despite substantial progress, most existing spaceplate designs have been fundamentally constrained by a trade-off between squeezed length and numerical aperture, and none has demonstrated a feasible structure supporting both a moderate numerical aperture and a millimeter-scale squeezed length. We report a metasurface spaceplate reaching the milestone of a millimeter-scale squeezed length with a practical numerical aperture. We achieved this by combining advantageous elements from existing approaches: high compression ratios and inverse-design flexibility in optimized multilayer metasurfaces, serving as the spaceplate unit structure, and preserving its numerical aperture by coupling its replicas, to construct a coupled cascaded spaceplate with an increased thickness. For operation in the mid-wave infrared, we demonstrated an optimized spaceplate exhibiting a high compression ratio of ~14 with a physical thickness of ~80 μm, resulting in a squeezed length of 1.09 mm, for a numerical aperture of 0.13. We developed a general framework for calculating the transmission characteristics of multilayered spaceplates while optimizing their layer thicknesses to accurately reproduce the target free space. Strikingly, millimeter-scale squeezed lengths with practical numerical apertures via metasurface spaceplates pave the way for ultrathin imaging systems through their utmost miniaturization, opening a new paradigm for augmented reality headsets, cellphones, and many more. |
| title | Metasurface spaceplates reach a millimeter-scale squeezed length of free space |
| topic | Optics |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.08880 |