Conformal Aberration‐Correcting Spaceplates

ABSTRACT We present conformal aberration‐correcting spaceplates (CAS), curvilinear freeform spaceplates on refractive surfaces that support tailored space expansion and compression as a function of incident angle. We investigate CAS on spherical surfaces and show that these systems can support variations in optical power and enable aberration correction in conceptually new ways: they possess spherical symmetry around the optical stop that naturally corrects for field‐dependent aberrations, and they simultaneously function as aspheres with an axis of symmetry aligned with the field angle, thereby correcting for spherical aberration. CAS can be accurately designed and simulated using an angle‐dependent effective index description together with full‐wave analysis, and we comprehensively model CAS on convex spherical surfaces. These concepts point to new opportunities enabled by hybrid nanophotonic‐refractive systems that combine the complementary properties of nano‐optics and bulk refractive optics to facilitate advanced optical functionality.