Full color visible imaging with crystalline silicon meta-optics
Silicon is a common material of choice for semiconductor optics in the infrared spectral range, due to its low cost, well-developed high-volume manufacturing methods, high refractive index, and transparency. It is, however, typically ill-suited for applications in the visible range, due to its large absorption coefficient, especially for green and blue light. Counterintuitively, we demonstrate how ultra-thin crystalline meta-optics enable full-color imaging in the visible range. For this purpose, we employ an inverse design approach, which maximizes the volume under the broadband modulation transfer function of the meta-optics. Beyond that, we demonstrate polarization-multiplexed functionality in the visible. This is particularly important as polarization optics require high index materials, a characteristic often difficult to obtain in the visible.
Authors
- Zhuoran Fang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8724-6633)
- Johannes E. Fröch (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1111-9704)
- Arka Majumdar (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0917-590X)
- Minho Choi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4497-2763)
- Arnab Manna (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0007-0056-9650)
- Shane Colburn (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7920-1037)
- Andrew Tang
- Alan Zhan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3725-0305)
- K. F. Böhringer (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9428-2648)
- Zheyi Han (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1986-037X)
- Luocheng Huang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6684-3954)
- Virat Tara (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0002-7563-2689)
- Zhihao Zhou (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5440-5658)
Institutions
- Tung Wah College (HK)
- University of Washington (US)
- University of Washington Applied Physics Laboratory (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Light Science & Applications
- Published
- 2025-06-18
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41377-025-01888-w
- Citations
- 7
- Primary Topic
- Metamaterials and Metasurfaces Applications
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 2.99
Funders
- National Science Foundation
- University of Washington
- Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency