 <p class="lead" id="first">Researchers have designed a new compact camera that acquires wide-angle images of high-quality using an array of metalenses -- flat nanopatterned surfaces used to manipulate light. By eliminating the bulky and heavy lenses typically required for this type of imaging, the new approach could enable wide-angle cameras to be incorporated into smartphones and portable imaging devices for vehicles such as cars or drones.</p><p>Tao Li and colleagues from Nanjing University in China report their new ultrathin camera in <em>Optica</em>, Optica Publishing Group's journal for high-impact research. The new camera, which is just 0.3 centimeters thick, can produce clear images of a scene with a viewing angle of more than 120 degrees.</p><p>Wide-angle imaging is useful for capturing large amounts of information that can create stunning, high-quality images. For machine vision applications such as autonomous driving and drone-based surveillance, wide-angle imaging can enhance performance and safety, for example by revealing an obstacle you couldn't otherwise see while backing up in a vehicle.</p><p>"To create an extremely compact wide-angle camera, we used an array of metalenses that each capture certain parts of the wide-angle scene," said Li. "The images are then stitched together to create a wide-angle image without any degradation in image quality."</p><p><strong>Miniaturizing the wide-angle lens</strong></p><p>Wide-angle imaging is usually accomplished with a fish-eye compound lens or other type of multilayer lens. Although researchers have previously tried to use metalenses to create wide-angle cameras, they tend to suffer from poor image quality or other drawbacks.</p><p>In the new work, the researchers used an array of metalenses that are each carefully designed to focus a different range of illumination angles. This allows each lens to clearly image part of a wide-angle object or scene. The clearest parts of each image can then be computationally stitched together to create the final image.</p><p>"Thanks to the flexible design of the metasurfaces, the focusing and imaging performance of each lens can be optimized independently," said Li. "This gives rise to a high quality final wide-angle image after a stitching process. What's more, the array can be manufactured using just one layer of material, which helps keep cost down."</p><p><strong>Seeing more with flat lenses</strong></p><p>To demonstrate the new approach, the researchers used nanofabrication to create a metalens array and mounted it directly to a CMOS sensor, creating a planar camera that measured about 1 cm × 1 cm × 0.3 cm. They then used this camera to image a wide-angle scene created by using two projectors to illuminate a curved screen surrounding the camera at a distance of 15 cm.</p><p>They compared their new planar camera with one based on a single traditional metalens while imaging the words "Nanjing University" projected across the curved screen. The planar camera produced an image that showed every letter clearly and had a viewing angle larger than 120°, more than three times larger than that of the camera based on a traditional metalens.</p><p>The researchers note that the planar camera demonstrated in this research used individual metalenses just 0.3 millimeters in diameter. They plan to enlarge these to about 1 to 5 millimeters to increase the camera's imaging quality. After optimization, the array could be mass produced to reduce the cost of each device.</p><p><strong>Story Source:</strong></p>