nature photonics

Review Article https://doi.org/10.1038/s41566-022-01108-6

Advances in optical metalenses

Received: 30 July 2022 Amir Arbabi 1

& Andrei Faraon 2

Accepted: 19 October 2022

Published online: 22 December 2022 Optical metalenses—two-dimensional arrays of submicrometre scatterers

that collectively focus light—have experienced growing research interest in
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recent years as they can realize conventional optical elements while offering
novel functionalities. Their progress is driven by the need for low-cost,
high-performance miniaturized optical systems and is supported by advances
in nanofabrication and computational tools and techniques. Here we review
the main capabilities offered by metalenses, such as their multifunctionality
and their ability to efficiently focus light to subwavelength spots. We discuss
how these characteristics enable new applications and provide an overview of
the current state of the art of optical metasystems. We conclude by discussing
the outstanding challenges in the field and highlighting application areas
where metalenses could have a substantial impact.

Optical metasurfaces are two-dimensional (2D) arrangements of large In this Review, we mainly focus on unique features of metasurfaces
numbers of subwavelength scatterers, or meta-atoms, that modify and practical applications that have been enabled by these features.
different properties of optical waves such as amplitudes, phases In the following, we first discuss the characteristics and features of
(wavefront) and polarization distributions. Metasurface lenses, or metalenses and then present some of the applications and metasystems
metalenses, are a subset of metasurfaces that are used in focusing and that have been enabled by these features.
imaging applications. Metalenses can be manufactured using scal-
able microfabrication techniques, represent a new platform for the Characteristics and features of metalenses
implementation of conventional optical components and systems, and Scattering by individual meta-atoms is the main interaction mechanism
can provide unparalleled capabilities in some applications. They are of light with metalenses and the subwavelength unit-cell dimensions
composed of meta-atoms placed on a lattice and shape optical waves eliminate the diffraction by the lattice. Metalenses that impart at least
with high spatial resolution. Early implementation of metalenses used several 2π phase shifts have multiple Fresnel zones due to the wrapping
ultrathin metallic meta-atoms1 but because of the absorption losses of the phase; as a result, their focal spot shapes and spectral responses
and fundamental efficiency limits of such metasurfaces2,3 more recent are dominated by the diffraction effects of the zones and are similar to
implementations use thicker dielectric meta-atoms. Meta-atoms with those of diffractive lenses. One advantage of metalenses over diffractive
simple geometries such as cylinders and disks are more amenable to lenses is their potentially higher efficiency at high numerical apertures
fabrication and have been used extensively. However, metalenses com- (NAs)14. Efficient high-NA metalenses have been demonstrated15–17,
posed of low-aspect-ratio disks4 have been shown to have low efficien- and their short focal lengths have enabled the reduction of distances
cies5,6; thus, most practical metalenses employ cylindrical (nanopost) between optical elements in multi-element metasystems, leading to
meta-atoms with larger aspect ratios. their ultracompact implementations.
Metalenses have a few general characteristics and offer several Metalenses are characterized by their focal spot intensity distribu-
features, including the capability to focus light to subwavelength spots tions and focusing efficiencies. The focal spot shape of a metalens that
with high efficiency, multifunctionality, ultrathin planar form factor possesses more than a few zones is mainly dependent on the location
and potential for low-cost manufacturing. These features have enabled of the zone boundaries and is independent of the meta-atom shapes or
new applications and the implementation of high-performance min- the details of the metalens design. Therefore, the majority of simulated
iature optical metasystems. There has been rapid progress in the field and measured metalens focal spots nearly match those of ideal metal-
of metasurfaces and metalenses over the past few years and several enses16,18, which are close to an Airy disk for spherical-aberration-free
review articles have focused on different aspects of this progress7–13. metalenses with small and moderate NAs19,20. The focusing efficiency

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA, USA. 2T. J. Watson Laboratory of Applied
1

Physics and Kavli Nanoscience Institute, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA. e-mail: arbabi@umass.edu; faraon@caltech.edu

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Review Article https://doi.org/10.1038/s41566-022-01108-6

of a metalens represents the percentage of the power incident on In addition to the polarization and wavelength, the incident
the metalens that is directed towards its main focal point. Diffractive angle (or equivalently the wavefront) of the incident light can be
lenses and metalenses have multiple focal spots along their axis corre- used as a degree of freedom, and metasurfaces that impart differ-
sponding to different diffraction orders generated by their multi-zone ent transformations to light incident from different directions have
structure. An ideal metalens will focus all the transmitted power into been demonstrated48–50. The excitation of different combinations of
its main focal point, but a realistic metalens directs some of this power the meta-atom modes at different incident angles leads to different
to its other focal spots. scattering responses of the meta-atoms and can enable independ-
Similar to diffractive lenses, metalenses with more than a few zones ent control of the imparted phase48 and/or amplitude49 of the scat-
exhibit chromatic dispersions that are caused by the fixed locations of tered light by proper design of the meta-atom geometry. Multi-angle
the zone boundaries21 and hinder their utilization in wideband applica- metasurfaces are designed for operation at several discrete angles;
tions such as white-light imaging. The relative bandwidth (Δλ/λ0) of however, it is also possible to design devices for operation over a con-
an uncorrected low-NA metalens with a diameter D designed for the tinuous range of angles. For example, a periodic metasurface may be
central wavelength of λ0 is proportional to λ0/(D NA)22,23; therefore, designed whose transmission coefficient is a strong function of the
small and low-NA metalenses can be used in wideband applications. It incident angle. In general, such a device is non-local and implements
has been shown that a focusing system is achromatic, that is, its focal a linear shift-invariant spatial transformation51,52. The non-local nature
plane is wavelength independent to the first order in Δλ, if the group requires the excitation of lateral modes such as guided modes. Using
delays along different ray paths in the system are the same24. Hence, one this concept, the Laplacian operation has been implemented using a
approach to making achromatic metalenses has been to compensate periodic array of nanoposts whose transmission coefficient amplitude
the group delay difference due to different ray path lengths by group depends quadratically on the in-plane wavenumber of monochromatic
delays imparted by the meta-atoms25–30; however, fundamental limits incident plane waves53 allowing for the implementation of a compact
on the maximum group delays achievable over a wide bandwidth by edge detector (Fig. 1c).
meta-atoms with reasonable heights have restricted the applicability
of the approach to metalenses with a limited number of zones23,26,31. Applications of metalenses
Another approach for implementing achromatic imaging systems is to Implementation of miniature optical systems
cascade metalenses and use them to direct rays along paths with equal The unique features offered by metalenses have enabled novel devices
lengths. Achromatic metasystems with larger apertures have been and applications. The ultrathin planar form factor, potentially low-cost
demonstrated using this approach24 but at the cost of more complex manufacturing and alignment using microfabrication techniques, the
implementations. ability to accurately control phase and polarization, and multifunc-
One of the advantages of metalenses over diffractive lenses, and tional capabilities are among some of the features that are attractive
arguably their most prominent feature, is their multifunctional capa- for the implementation of miniature optical systems. Millimetre-thick
bility. Because of reliance on the scattering phenomena, a metalens miniature cameras with wide fields of view have been demonstrated
can function differently depending on different degrees of freedom of using metalens doublets that are corrected for monochromatic aber-
light (that is, wavelength, polarization, incident angle and so on) For rations at a near-infrared22 and a visible54 wavelength. The doublet
instance, it has been shown that metalenses composed of nanopost design can be simplified by removing the first element, which corrects
meta-atoms with elliptical or rectangular cross-sections can impart two the spherical aberrations, when some level of aberrations can be toler-
arbitrary wavefronts on two orthogonal polarizations of light (Fig. 1a)32. ated55. However, the chromatic aberrations limit the spectral bandwidth
A more general form of polarization and phase transformation that of these cameras. To address this issue, an array of such doublets, each
allows for the implementation of any arbitrary loss-less Jones matrix designed for a different centre wavelength and integrated with nar-
at a unit-cell level has been recently demonstrated using a bilayer rowband filters, has been demonstrated that captures a 20-channel
meta-atom composed of two cascaded nanoposts with rectangular multispectral image in a single snapshot (Fig. 2a)56. An array of metal-
cross-sections33. Such meta-atoms can realize arbitrary polarization enses with small apertures, and thus negligible chromatic aberrations,
eigenstates thus enabling the realization of chiral metalenses34,35. have also replaced microlens arrays in a light-field camera, reducing
The wavelength degree of freedom can also be used to realize their aberrations and improving the image resolution57.
multi-wavelength metalenses (that is, a metalens that imparts differ- When implementing an optical system with metalenses, the dis-
ent desired wavefronts at a few different wavelengths.) An important tances between the elements rather than the metalens thicknesses
example is metalenses that have the same focal length at a few discrete determine the total thickness of the system. One approach for reduc-
wavelengths, which are typically referred to as ‘multi-wavelength achro- ing the thickness is to fold the optical path and use a substrate that is
matic’36,37 or ‘RGB achromatic’38,39. Figure 1b shows a double wavelength partially coated on both sides with reflective layers as a light guide.
metalens that focuses two different wavelengths to the same point. This approach has been used for the implementation of compact
An ideal multi-wavelength metalens imparts the desired wavefronts high-resolution metasurface spectrometers58, hyperspectral imagers59
at those wavelengths with 100% efficiency and its implementation and mode-division multiplexers60. The folded spectrometer is shown in
requires meta-atoms that can impart all combinations of different Fig. 2b and uses three cascaded metasurfaces, which are all fabricated
phases at different wavelengths21. Given the limited degrees of freedom on one side of a substrate, to disperse and focus the incident light onto
in scattering from subwavelength meta-atoms with finite refractive a detector array that is placed under the substrate. The mode-division
index, this can only be partially achieved, which results in low efficiency, multiplexer, which is shown in Fig. 2c, uses a similar folded architecture
especially as the number of wavelengths increases36,40. One approach and reshapes and couples input light from three single-mode fibres to
for increasing the number of degrees of freedom without sacrificing three different modes of a few-mode fibre60. The design considers one
the spatial resolution is to use multi-layer or stacked meta-atoms39,41–43, extended metalens, instead of several cascaded ones, and optimizes
and it has been shown that the efficiency values can be increased by its phase profile assuming multiple reflections and interaction of light
increasing the number of layers42. Another approach is to design sepa- with the metalens before exiting the system.
rate metalenses for different wavelengths and then combine them by
selecting meta-atoms from different designs, a technique that is known Polarization manipulation and imaging
as spatial multiplexing44,45, interleaving46 or sharing apertures47. In this The polarization multifunctionality offered by the metalenses has ena-
approach, the spatial resolution and the efficiency are traded for ease bled full-Stokes imaging polarimetry61. The focal plane is divided into
of design and an increased number of wavelengths. superpixels and three metalens polarization beam splitters/focusers are

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Review Article https://doi.org/10.1038/s41566-022-01108-6

Measurement Measurement
a Device schematic Images of fabricated metalens
(without polarizer) (with polarizer)
Simulation
2 µm 2 µm

2 µm

Intensity (a.u.)
0

100 µm

b Device schematic
Images of fabricated metalens
Measurement results
1
x

20 (µm)
λ = 915 nm

Intensity (a.u.)
z
1 µm

40 (µm)
λ = 1,550 nm

z
100 400 800
50 µm 500 nm
0
z (µm)

c Device schematic Measured transmission

coefficient amplitude
Ein Image of fabricated metasurface
1.0 φ = 0°
Captured image without
Transfer function, |H(Kx)|

Measurement
Fit metasurface differentiator
0.8
15 µm
0.6

0.4

0.2 Captured image with

2 µm metasurface differentiator
Eout 2E
in 0
–0.3 –0.15 0 0.15 0.3
NA

Fig. 1 | Multifunctional metalenses. a, A bifunctional metalens that focuses implements the Laplacian operator53. Ein, input electric field; Eout, output electric
right-handed and left-handed polarized light into diffraction-limited and field; H, transfer function; Kx, x component of input field’s wavevector; φ, angular
doughnut-shaped spots, respectively32. b, A double-wavelength metalens that coordinate in the Fourier plane. Panels adapted with permission from: a, ref. 32,
focuses two wavelengths to the same point21. c, A multi-angle metasurface whose Springer Nature Ltd; b, ref. 21, Optica Publishing Group; c, ref. 53, Springer Nature
transmission coefficient varies continuously with incident angle. The metasurface Ltd.

integrated into each superpixel. As shown in Fig. 3a, the metalenses split efficiencies depending on the polarization of the incident light and
light using polarization bases of 0/90, +45/−45 and left-/right-handed thus their relative intensities can be used to determine its polarization
circular polarizations and focus them on the image sensor’s pixels, thus state. The latter implementation has a substantially smaller spectral
directly measuring all Stokes’ parameters at the superpixel resolution. bandwidth because of the large chromatic aberrations of the grating,
Compared with more traditional division-of-focal-plane imaging pola- whereas the chromatic aberrations of the polarization beam splitters/
rimeters, which filter light using four polarizers with rotated transmis- focusers are negligible because of their small apertures.
sion axes and provide only three of the four Stokes’ parameters62, the
metalens imaging polarimeter has a higher signal-to-noise ratio and Microscopy and endoscopy
measures all Stokes’ parameters. A similar implementation has been Metalenses have also been used in optical microscopy and have offered
demonstrated more recently at a visible wavelength and has been used novel or improved methods and additional capabilities for illumina-
for characterizing vector beams63. Figure 3b shows a Shack–Hartmann tion, collection and optical processing. The simplicity of the genera-
wavefront sensor that can measure both the wavefront and polariza- tion of structured illumination has enabled their use in light-sheet
tion of optical beams by using larger superpixels and considering the microscopy67,68 and allowed for the simultaneous engineering of illu-
location of the focal points in each superpixel64. Another approach for mination and collection paths leading to an increased depth of focus
implementing imaging polarimeters is shown in Fig. 3c and uses a 2D in optical coherence tomography (OCT)69. The overlap between the
metasurface polarization grating with four diffraction orders (±1 orders illumination and collection paths in a microscope defines its point
along the horizontal and vertical directions)65,66. The grating is designed spread function (PSF), and the proper off-axis design of these paths
and implemented such that different orders have different diffraction using two side-by-side fabricated metasurfaces (Fig. 4a) has enabled a

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Review Article https://doi.org/10.1038/s41566-022-01108-6

a b
Device schematic Microscope image of metalens doublet Device schematic
x λ20 x 1 mm Microscope image of fabricated device
Corrector z Grating
y

<1.6 mm
Focuser
Filter
λ2
Image
sensor Grating Metasurface 1 Metasurface 2
λ1
10 mm 500 mm
2.5 mm
Captured multispectral image Measured spots
500 µm 1

Intensity (a.u.)
G R Three-channel
colour composite
Focal
plane

760 nm 0
0 1,200
810 nm y (µm)
B y 860 nm
x z 200 µm

c Device schematic
Microscope image of fabricated device
Single-mode fibre array

Metasurface mode multiplexer

100 mm
+ +

Few-mode fibre

Measured intensity distributions 10 mm

Fig. 2 | Optical metasystems. a, A miniature metasurface multispectral imager. substrate58. c, A compact metasurface multiplexer that reshapes the light from
The multi-aperture imager uses an array of metasurface bandpass filters and three single-mode fibres into three modes of a few-mode fibre and couples
an array of metalens doublets that are designed for wavelengths matched them into it60. Panels adapted with permission from: a, ref. 56, under a Creative
to their corresponding filters56. b, A miniature high-resolution metasurface Commons licence CC BY 4.0; b, ref. 58, under a Creative Commons licence
spectrometer composed of three cascaded metasurfaces. The optical path is CC BY 4.0; c, ref. 60, under a Creative Commons licence CC BY 4.0.
folded, allowing all the metasurfaces to be fabricated on the same side of the

PSF with a long depth of focus and high lateral resolution. Metalenses same focal length at the excitation and emission wavelengths and
have also been utilized to substantially increase the field of view in two-photon imaging has been demonstrated71; however, because of the
high-resolution fluorescence microscopy70. As Fig. 4b shows, a met- relatively wide bandwidth of the pulsed excitation laser, the metalens
alens operating as a diffuser with a pseudorandom phase profile has chromatic aberrations disperse the pulse axially and reduce its peak
been used to increase the effective NA of a scanning fluorescence power. The unique polarization bifunctionality of metasurfaces has
microscope that uses the combination of the metalens and spatial been exploited in the optical processing of images in super-resolution72
light modulator for focusing and scanning the excitation spot. The and quantitative phase microscopy73. Using a spatially varying metasur-
large angular spread of the light transmitted through the metalens face polarization filter placed at the back focal plane of the collection
increases the resolution of the microscope while keeping its large field objective, radially polarized emission from single molecules is filtered
of view unchanged, and its accurately known phase profile eliminates out and the localization error caused by the molecule’s orientation is
the need for the tedious and time-consuming characterization process removed, increasing the technique’s accuracy72. This bifunctionality
of its transmission matrix. has also enabled forming of multiple shifted images of an object and
Another example application of metalenses in microscopy is the interfering them with each other to obtain phase information. The
accurate alignment of the illumination and collection in a two-photon idea has resulted in a miniature, fully integrated, quantitative phase
microscope71. A substantial difference between the excitation and microscope that can accurately measure phase objects such as biologi-
emission wavelengths in a two-photon microscope and the chromatic cal samples (Fig. 4c)73. Furthermore, the compact form factor and the
aberration of microscopes reduce the overlap between the excita- simplicity of implementing arbitrary wavefronts have been exploited
tion and collection spots, diminishing the intensity of their signal. for implementing a miniature OCT endoscope probe with reduced
A double-wavelength metalens has been designed to have the aberrations (Fig. 4d)74.

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Review Article https://doi.org/10.1038/s41566-022-01108-6

a Schematic illustration b Schematic illustration Measured beam profile

270
6π

Phase (rad)
Ix

Normalized intensity
Pixel 1 Iy
1.0 4π
2π

y (µm)
Ia 180
Ib 0.5
Pixel 2 0
Meta
lens 50 µm 0
arra Cam Il
Metasurface y era Ir 0.1 rad µm–1
Light dy
0
0 90 180 270
One dx x (µm)
Measurement results pixe
l

Fabricated superpixel
c
Imaging lens Schematic illustration Fabricated metasurface
(f = 20 mm asphere)
Distant
photographic
scene
1 1
S0 (a.u.)

S2 (a.u.)

0
CMOS
100 µm 100 µm array
0 –1
300 nm 250 µm
Matrix grating Measurement results
1 1
S3 (a.u.)
S1 (a.u.)

0 0

100 µm 100 µm
11 µm
µm Raw S0 Azimuth
DOP
–1 –1 exposure (intensity) (°)

Fig. 3 | Metalens-based polarization imagers. a, A full-Stokes metalens and a conventional lens to form four images with different amplitudes depending
polarization camera. A pixelated metasurface is placed at the focal plane of a on its polarization65. S0–S3, Stokes parameters; Ix and Iy, horizontally and
camera. Each superpixel is formed of three polarization-splitting metalenses that vertically polarized light intensities, respectively; Ia and Ib, diagonally polarized
use three different polarization bases, and all Stokes’ parameters are measured at light intensities; Il and Ir, left- and right-handed circularly polarized light
each superpixel61. b, A combination of a Shack–Hartmann wavefront sensor and a intensities, respectively; f, focal length; CMOS, complementary metal–oxide–
polarization camera similar to the one shown in a that uses larger pixels and semiconductor; DOP, degree of polarization. Panels adapted with permission
the location of the focal point on the camera to also measure the wavefront64. from: a, ref. 61, American Chemical Society; b, ref. 64, under a Creative Commons
c, A full-Stokes polarization camera that uses a metasurface polarization grating licence CC BY 4.0; c, ref. 65, AAAS.

Computational imaging a bifocal metalens that forms two images of a scene with different
The simplicity of the accurate implementation of arbitrary phase profiles defocus levels side by side81. The metalens is designed using the spa-
using metalenses and their multifunctionality have enabled their applica- tial multiplexing technique by interleaving meta-atoms taken from
tions in computational imaging. In computational imaging, specifically two off-axis metalenses with different focal lengths. Arrays of bifo-
designed optical components generate intensity patterns on an image cal metalenses have also been used to increase the depth of field of
sensor, and information about the imaged objects is obtained by process- light-field cameras82. By using the polarization bifunctionality offered
ing the captured patterns. The captured patterns are typically not direct by metasurfaces, an array of metalenses is designed to have different
images of the object as intended in conventional imaging. For instance, focal lengths for two circular polarizations of light, and the array has
by using a metalens whose phase profile is a sum of a hyperbolic and a replaced the microlens array that is conventionally used in light-field
cubic term, a focusing element with an increased depth of focus can be cameras. A neural-network-based reconstruction method is used for
obtained75, which can reduce the chromatic aberrations of metalenses. correcting the aberrations and forming an all-in-focus image as shown
By using this approach, imaging systems with increased bandwidth in Fig. 5d. Because of the small apertures of metalenses, their chromatic
have been demonstrated76–78. The PSFs of these types of metalense are aberrations are small and colour images have been obtained using
substantially larger than the diffraction-limited spots of conventional this technique. The chromatic dispersion of metalenses, which corre-
imaging systems and are asymmetric, and a deconvolution step is needed lates colour and depth information, has also been used for estimating
to reconstruct an image from the captured intensities. The technique the depth information. The technique has been demonstrated using
reduces the chromatic aberrations at the cost of reducing the resolution, simulated data and a neural-network-based reconstruction algorithm86.
field of view and the signal-to-noise ratio. Using a similar approach but by
using an optimized circularly symmetric PSF and a neural-network-based Virtual and augmented reality
image reconstruction process, higher-quality colour images (Fig. 5a) have The small form factor, low weight, high performance, multifunctional-
been obtained79. Compared with conventional colour imaging systems, ity and the potential for low-cost manufacturing are the attractive fea-
the approach reduces the total length of the imaging system but has a tures of metalenses for applications related to augmented and virtual
lower resolution and higher computational cost. reality. As shown in Fig. 6a, a triple-wavelength metalens has been used
In addition to colour imaging, metalens computational imaging as compact projection optics for a near-eye display, but their efficiency
has been used to obtain more information from objects and scenes of about 15% needs to be improved for them to become a practically
such as phase80 and depth81,82 or to reduce the metalens aperture area83. viable option40. Another implementation of the near-eye display uses
As Fig. 5b shows, a metalens with a random but known phase profile a metalens for projecting the image to infinity and addresses the chro-
has been used to scatter incoming light and form speckle intensity matic aberration by reimaging different colours of the display to differ-
patterns, and the phase profile of the metalens is used to compute the ent planes in front of the metalens using conventional lenses and three
intensity and phase of the incoming light using the speckle-correlation dichroic mirrors87. The approach improves the chromatic dispersion of
scattering matrix method. Bifocal metalenses have been employed the projection system, but the large size of the relay system defeats the
for recording depth information and increasing the depth of field. potential size and weight reduction features offered by the metalens.
Depth information about a scene can be obtained by capturing two
images with different defocus levels84 or by capturing images from Quantum optical systems
two metalenses with two different PSFs that exhibit different depth Large arrays of metalenses can be readily fabricated in a compact form
sensitivities85. Figure 5c shows a depth sensor demonstrated using on the same substrate, a feature that is of interest for the miniaturization

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Review Article https://doi.org/10.1038/s41566-022-01108-6

a Schematic illustration y
Measured imaging PSF
Light source z axis (µm) 0

z –1,000 –800 –600 –400 –200 0 200 400 600 800 1,000
–65
Illumination x

y axis
(µm)
–5
beam 65

Intensity (dB)
z = –600 µm z = –300 µm z=0 z = 300 µm z = 600 µm
–10
50 µm

–15
Collection x
beam Metasurfaces FWHM = 3.4 µm FWHM = 3.6 µm FWHM = 3.7 µm FWHM = 4.1 µm FWHM = 4.7 µm
y –20
Sample
Detector
Measurement results
Microscope image of fabricated metasurface

200 µm 500 µm 500 µm

b Schematic illustration
ce
surfa
Meta
Scanning electron image of fabricated metasurface Captured microscope image

SiNx nanopost ×4 objective

×20 objective
Fused silica substrate

Reconfigurable control 1 mm
5 µm

c Phase imaging concept Device schematic d Device schematic Endoscope photo

Side Amorphous
Gold view silicon Sheath
Metalens
SU-8

Fused
1 mm Metalens Fibre
silica
Substrate
Camera m
with a Ferrule Pris
SMF Prism
polarizer Microscope images of fabricated device

1 mm
Metasuface
layer 2
Measurement result

200 µm 200 µm
Metasuface
Measured phase image
layer 1
1.54
∂φ/∂y (rad µm–1)

Phase
objects
0

40 µm
–1.54 500 µm 500 µm

Fig. 4 | Metalens applications in microscopy. a, A high-resolution OCT probe microscope uses two sets of cascaded birefringent metalenses to simultaneously
that uses two side-by-side fabricated off-axis metalenses to focus and collect form three interferometric images of an object and uses them to find the phase
light. The PSF reveals a smaller depth of focus than a conventional on-axis probe image73. d, A small OCT probe that uses a prism and a metalens to focus light from
with the same lateral resolution69. b, A high-resolution scanning fluorescence a fibre off-axis and collect the scattered light from its focal spot74. FWHM, full
microscope with a wide field of view. A designed metalens diffuser is used with width at half maximum; SMF, single-mode fibre. Panels adapted with permission
a spatial light modulator to obtain high-resolution images over a field of view from: a, ref. 69, Springer Nature Ltd; b, ref. 70, Springer Nature Ltd; c, ref. 73,
substantially larger than a conventional fluorescent microscope with the same Springer Nature Ltd; d, ref. 74, Springer Nature Ltd.
resolution70. c, A fully integrated snapshot quantitative phase microscope. The

of quantum optical systems. A high-NA near-infrared metalens has been for implementation of an array of metalenses is the main advantage
used for trapping a single atom and collecting its emission88. The met- over using such lenses. A visible high-NA metalens has been used for
alens could be replaced with an aspheric lens; however, the potential the collection and collimation of emission from a nitrogen-vacancy

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Review Article https://doi.org/10.1038/s41566-022-01108-6

a Imaging concept Image of fabricated metalens b Imaging concept

0.5 mm 1 mm
100 µm Microscope photo of
1.0
fabricated metalens

Amplitude (a.u.)
Computation Top side
0.5

Phase (rad)
Object
Designed 0
Sensor metasurface
Meta-optic Speckle
diffuser
–π
Imaging results
Hyperboloid (511 nm) Neural nano-optics
Ground truth Measurement results
using compound optics
Reconstructed Reconstructed
Object Speckle amplitude phase
1.0 π

Amplitude (a.u.)

Phase (rad)
0.5 0

25 µm 25 µm 25 µm 25 µm
0 –π

c Imaging concept d Imaging concept Microscope photo of fabricated metalens array

Photosensor Primary Metalens Imaging
Object space
lens array plane
DOFRCP DOFLCP

~6 mm
Aperture Metalens 3 mm
Objects at
different depths Near
object
Far Optical axis
object
RCP
300 µm 50 µm
LCP

All-in-focus image Refocused image at different depths

Fabricated metalens
1.0 m
Captured light-field image
0.3 m

500 nm 200 nm
0.5 m
Measurement results 0.28 Disparity
Scene I+ I– Z 2.3 m 3.3 m
Distance (m)

0.33 0 35 1.5 m

0.38

0.43

0.48

Fig. 5 | Metalens applications in computational imaging. a, Computational birefringent metalenses to increase the depth of field. The metalenses have
imaging using a metalens with an optimized phase profile and reconstruction two different focal lengths for right- and left-handed polarized light82. I+ and
using a neural network has enabled the reduction of monochromatic and I–, two images formed by the metalens; Z, distance; DOF, depth of field; RCP,
chromatic aberrations79. b, Imaging the complex field using a designed right-handed circularly polarized; LCP, left-handed circularly polarized. Panels
metasurface diffuser with a random but known phase profile. The complex adapted with permission from: a, ref. 79, under a Creative Commons licence
field from an object is computed from the speckle pattern generated by the CC BY 4.0; b, ref. 80, Optica Publishing Group; c, ref. 81, under a Creative Commons
metasurface80. c, A depth sensor implemented using a bifocal off-axis metalens licence CC BY 4.0; d, ref. 82, under a Creative Commons licence CC BY 4.0.
with two different focal lengths81. d, A light field camera that uses an array of

centre in diamond89. The metalens has been implemented by etching of the aberrations and the manufacturing cost with metalens diam-
the nanopost meta-atoms into diamond and functions as an immersion eters make metalens an ideal solution in the ever-growing field of
lens, decreasing the total internal reflection and increasing the col- high-performance miniature optical systems. The planar form fac-
lected power. Such a metalens needs to be designed for and aligned to a tor and the wafer-level fabrication and alignment of metalenses can
specific nitrogen-vacancy centre, which impedes its potential for scal- realize the vision of on-chip optical systems such as cameras, micro-
ing to arrays. A metalens array has also been used to define a 2D array of scopes, depth sensors and spectrometers by simultaneous integration
photon-pair sources via the spontaneous parametric down-conversion of metalenses with electronics and optoelectronic components (for
process90. As Fig. 6b shows, the metalens array focuses an incident beam example, vertical-cavity lasers, photodetector, image sensors and
into many focal points inside a crystal with second-order nonlinearity, so on) eliminating the need for the post-fabrication alignment and
and photon-pair emission has occurred at these points. The photons assembly. However, several challenges persist, including the high
are emitted into forward-directed beams and can be further entangled manufacturing costs, the lack of relationships that specify potential
and processed using free-space optical components including other theoretical efficiency limits and design techniques for achieving
metasurfaces, thus enabling a compact high-dimensional entangled them, especially for multifunctional metalenses, and the mitiga-
photon source. tion of chromatic aberrations in wideband imaging. Metalenses for
proof-of-concept demonstrations have typically been fabricated
Outlook and perspective using electron beam lithography, and scalable and cost-effective
Optical metalenses offer several features, including high efficiency, manufacturing techniques such as photolithography91–94 and nano-
multifunctionality, planar form factor and the potential for low-cost imprint lithography95 or nanoimprint patterning96 are required for
manufacturing, and suffer from chromatic aberrations. The increase practical applications.

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Review Article https://doi.org/10.1038/s41566-022-01108-6

a Schematic illustration
CMOS camera Fabricated metalens
Tube lens Measurement results
Liquid crystal cells
TFT
Analyser Laser back-light
Polarizer
illumination
Light diffuser
Eyeball
model

100 µm 100 µm 100 µm

1 cm
Retina Eye lenses

Meta-eyepiece Laser-illuminated micro-LCD

b Schematic illustration Microscope image of

fabricated metalens array Image of emitted photon pairs

Metalens BBO 200 µm

array

Fig. 6 | Metalens applications in virtual reality and quantum optical crystal90. TFT, thin-film transistor; LCD, liquid crystal display; BBO: beta
systems. a, A near-eye display that uses a triple-wavelength metalens and laser barium borate. Panels adapted with permission from: a, ref. 40, under a Creative
illumination40. b, An array of photon-pair sources are defined at the focal points Commons licence CC BY 4.0; b, ref. 90, AAAS.
of a metalens array that focuses an incident pump beam inside a nonlinear

Single-layer metasurfaces have already been integrated into 6. Skarda, J. et al. Low-overhead distribution strategy for simulation
narrowband commercial products97, but further increasing their and optimization of large-area metasurfaces. npj Comput. Mater.
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ing multiple cascaded metalenses such as linear operations used in 7. Khorasaninejad, M. & Capasso, F. Metalenses: versatile
implementing deep neural networks98. Adjoint-based optimization multifunctional photonic components. Science 358, eaam8100
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with respect to meta-atoms’ dimensions, is a promising technique for 8. Kamali, S. M., Arbabi, E., Arbabi, A. & Faraon, A. A review
designing efficient metalenses99, and may provide optimal designs of dielectric optical metasurfaces for wavefront control.
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acceleration6,101. Optimization studies have suggested that there are 9. Tseng, M. L. et al. Metalenses: advances and applications. Adv.
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