This book looks at advanced nanocomposites, introducing long-awaited concepts towards bridging the gap between nanostructured optical materials and next-generation imaging systems. It investigates nanocomposites as bulk optical materials and highlights the immense potential they hold for real-world optical elements and systems, such as smartphone cameras. It covers the full spectrum of nanocomposite optical materials from their fundamental properties to analytical modeling and detailed application examples. This book also provides an in-depth discussion of the role these new materials play in the development of broadband flat optics – diffractive optical elements used for enhancing high-end broadband imaging systems. Written by an industry expert, this book seamlessly connects fundamental research and real-world applications. It is the ideal guide both for optical engineers working towards integrating new technologies, and researchers involved with fundamental research on optical materials.
Author(s): Daniel Werdehausen
Edition: 1st ed. 2021
Publisher: Springer
Year: 2021
Language: English
Pages: 176
Preface
About this Book
Contents
About the Author
Acronyms
1 Introduction
1.1 Scope and Structure of This Book
References
2 Fundamentals of Effective Materialspg and Diffractive Optics
2.1 Dispersion of Optical Materials and Chromatic Aberration
2.1.1 Chromatic Aberration
2.2 Analytical Modeling of Nanocomposites
2.3 Nanocomposites Synthesis
2.4 Diffractive Optical Elements
2.4.1 Periodic Gratings
2.4.2 Diffractive Lenses
References
3 Design of Bulk Optical Nanocomposites
3.1 Numerical Modelling of Optical Materials
3.1.1 Generation of Three Dimensional Particle Distributions
3.1.2 Full Wave Optical Simulations
3.1.3 Retrival Procedure
3.2 The Homogeneous Regime—Modelling Bulk Optical Materials at the Single Scatterer Level
3.3 The Transition From Homogeneous to Heterogeneous Materials
3.3.1 Refractive Index Fluctuations
3.3.2 Ensemble Averages—The Real Part of the Effective Refractive Index
3.3.3 The Imaginary Part of the Effective Refractive Index—The Influence of Incoherent Scattering
3.4 Effective Medium Regimes
References
4 Nanocomposites as Tunable Optical Materials
4.1 Dispersion-Engineered Nanocomposites
4.2 Nanocomposite-Enabled Optical Elements and Systems
4.3 Nanocomposites for 3D Printed Micro-optics
4.3.1 Nano-Inks for Femtosecond Direct Laser Writing
4.3.2 3D Printed Nanocomposite-Enabled Micro-optical Elements
References
5 Achromatic Diffractive Optical Elements (DOEs) for Broadband Applications
5.1 Nanocomposite-Enabled DOEs
5.1.1 Using the Materials as Degrees of Freedom
5.2 Diffractive Lenses in High-Numerical-Aperture Broadband Imaging Systems
5.2.1 Optical and DOE Design Perspectives
5.2.2 Performance of Macroscopic Diffractive Lenses
5.2.3 Focusing Efficiency
5.2.4 Diffractive Lenses (DLs) in Broadband Imaging Systems
5.3 A General Design Formalism for Highly Efficient Broadband DOEs
5.3.1 Design Framework
5.3.2 Systematic Investigation of Nanocomposite-Enabled EGs
5.3.3 Material Combinations for High Performance EGs
5.4 Towards Broadband Metalenses and GRIN DOEs
5.4.1 Nanocomposites Allow for the Design of Diffractive Optical Elements that Fulfill all Requirements of High-End Broadband Optical Systems
References
6 The Potential of Nanocomposites for Optical Design
6.1 Refractive Replacements for Diffractive Lenses
6.2 Dispersion-Engineered Materials for Correcting Chromatic Aberrations
6.3 Pushing the Limits of Smartphone Cameras
6.3.1 Nanocomposites Could Change the Way How Chromatic Aberrations are corrected and Could Enhance Real-World Optical Systems
References
7 Summary and Outlook
References
Appendix Appendix
A.1 Numerical Modeling—Additional Data
A.1.1 The Role of the Placement Procedure
A.1.2 Convergence with Increasing Lengths
A.1.3 Effective Interfaces
A.1.4 Retrieval Equation for Metamaterials
A.1.5 Ensemble Averages in Reflection
A.1.6 Width Dependence—The Influence of Incoherent Scattering
A.2 Polarization Dependence of Nanocomposite-Enabled DOEs
A.3 Performance Benefits of Nanocomposite-Enabled DOEs Over the State-of-the-Art Solutions
A.4 Achromatic Metalenses
A.5 Stray Light in Hybrid Systems
A.6 Prototype Telephoto Lens—Refractive Benchmarks
A.7 Efficiencies of GRIN DOEs
A.8 Towards Efficiency Achromatized Metalenses
A.9 Apochromat with Dispersion-Engineered Materials
A.10 Optical Designs for Smartphone Cameras—Performance
Appendix References
Index
