High-efficiency focusing metalens based on metagrating arrays

The flexible and precise control of wavefronts of electromagnetic waves has always been a hot issue, and the emergence of metasurfaces has provided a platform to solve this problem, but their design and optimization remain challenging. Here, we demonstrate two design and optimization methods for metagrating-based metalenses based on the highest manipulation efficiency and highest diffraction efficiency. The metalens operating at 0.14 THz with numerical apertures of 0.434 is designed by these two methods for comparison. Then, the metalens is fabricated with photocuring 3D printing technology and an imaging system is built to characterize the distribution of focal spots. With the highest manipulation efficiency, the metalens shows a focal spot with the diameter of 0.93 λ and depth of focus (DOF) of 22.7 λ , and the manipulation and diffraction efficiencies reach 98.1% and 58.3%. With the highest diffraction efficiency, the metalens shows a focal spot with the diameter of 0.91 λ and DOF of 24.6 λ , and the manipulation and diffraction efficiencies reach 94.6% and 62.5%. The results show that the metalenses designed by both methods can perform a filamentous focal spot in the sub-wavelength scale with a long DOF; simultaneous high manipulation and diffraction efficiencies are obtained. A transmission imaging manner is used to verify the imaging capability of the metalenses, and the measurements are satisfactorily congruous with the anticipated results. The proposed methods can stably generate focal spots beyond the physical diffraction limit, which has a broad application in terahertz imaging, communications, etc.