Classical nano-photonic technologies

Updated March 2023

Our group has a broad interest in nano-photonic technologies. Currently we are interested in the topic of controlling optical wavefronts propagating through free-space using materials where the refractive index is structured with sub-wavelength spatial resolution. When these materials are very thin (thinner than the free space wavelength), they are currently referred to as dielectric metasurfaces.

Dielectric metasurfaces are planar devices that promise to replace optical components like lenses, mirrors, polarizers, and waveplates. We are working with dielectric metasurfaces in the form of high contrast transmitarrays and high contrast gratings. We are using these structures for applications like wide field imaging, microscopy, conformal optics, computational imaging, etc. The image below shows a scanning electron microscope image of a polarization and phase plate with sub-wavelength spatial resolution.



In the past few years we became very interested in the topic of three dimensional meta-materials. 3D structures have much more degrees of freedom compared to 2D structures, so they enable new functionalities that are very difficult to realize otherwise. One such example is efficient color and polarization splitting on image sensors.


Selected publications

  1. Conner Ballew, Gregory Roberts, Andrei Faraon, Multi-dimensional wavefront sensing using volumetric meta-optics , (2023), ArXiv
  2. Gregory Roberts, Conner Ballew, Tianzhe Zheng, Juan C. Garcia, Sarah Camayd-Muñoz, Philip W. C. Hon, Andrei Faraon, 3D-Patterned Inverse-Designed Mid-Infrared Metaoptics , (2022), ArXiv
  3. Sarah Camayd-Muñoz, Conner Ballew, Gregory Roberts, Andrei Faraon, Multi-functional volumetric meta-optics for color and polarization image sensors, Optica, Vol. 7, Issue 4, pp. 280-283 (2020), [https://doi.org/10.1364/OPTICA.384228], ArXiv Version. Also, see blog post
  4. Mahdad Mansouree, Hyounghan Kwon, Ehsan Arbabi, Andrew McClung, Andrei Faraon, Amir Arbabi, Multifunctional 2.5D metastructures enabled by adjoint optimization, Optica, Vol. 7, Issue 1, pp. 77-84 (2020), [https://doi.org/10.1364/OPTICA.374787]
  5. Hyounghan Kwon, Ehsan Arbabi, Seyedeh Mahsa Kamali, Mohammad Sadegh Faraji-Dana, Andrei Faraon, Single-shot quantitative phase gradient microscopy using a system of multifunctional metasurfaces, Nature Photonics, 14, 109–114 (2020), [https://doi.org/10.1038/s41566-019-0536-x], See highlights in News and Views
  6. Seyedeh Mahsa Kamali, Ehsan Arbabi, Hyounghan Kwon, Andrei Faraon, Metasurface-generated complex 3-dimensional optical fields for interference lithography, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS), 116 (43) 21379-21384 (2019), [https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1908382116]
  7. Ehsan Arbabi, Seyedeh Mahsa Kamali, Amir Arbabi, Andrei Faraon, Vectorial holograms with a dielectric metasurface: ultimate polarization pattern generation, ACS Photonics, 6, 11, 2712–2718 (2019), [https://doi.org/10.1021/acsphotonics.9b00678]
  8. Mohammad Sadegh Faraji-Dana, Ehsan Arbabi, Hyounghan Kwon, Seyedeh Mahsa Kamali, Amir Arbabi, John G. Bartholomew, Andrei Faraon, Hyperspectral Imager with Folded Metasurface Optics, ACS Photonics, 6, 8, 2161–2167 (2019), [https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5049733]
  9. Seyedeh Mahsa Kamali, Ehsan Arbabi, Amir Arbabi, Andrei Faraon, A review of dielectric optical metasurfaces for wavefront control, Nanophotonics , 2018-05-18
  10. Andrei Faraon, Amir Arbabi, Yu Horie, Ehsan Arbabi, Seyedeh Mahsa Kamali, Flat free-space optical elements based on dielectric metasurfaces, SPIE Newsroom, (2016), [DOI: 10.1117/2.1201604.006375]
  11. Mohammad Sadegh Faraji-Dana, Ehsan Arbabi, Amir Arbabi, Seyedeh Mahsa Kamali, Hyounghan Kwon, Andrei Faraon, Compact Folded Metasurface Spectrometer, Nature Communications , volume 9, Article number: 4196 (2018), ArXiv Version
  12. Hyounghan Kwon, Ehsan Arbabi, Seyedeh Mahsa Kamali, Mohammad Sadegh Faraji-Dana, Andrei Faraon, Computational complex optical field imaging using a designed metasurface diffuser, Optica , Vol. 5, Issue 8, pp. 924-931 (2018), [doi:10.1364/OPTICA.5.000924]
  13. Mooseok Jang, Yu Horie, Atsushi Shibukawa, Joshua Brake, Yan Liu, Seyedeh Mahsa Kamali, Amir Arbabi, Haowen Ruan, Andrei Faraon, Changhuei Yang, Wavefront shaping with disorder-engineered metasurfaces, Nature Photonics , volume 12, pages84–90 (2018), ArXiv Version
  14. Seyedeh Mahsa Kamali, Ehsan Arbabi, Amir Arbabi, Yu Horie, Mohammad Sadegh Faraji-Dana, Andrei Faraon, Angle-multiplexed metasurfaces: encoding independent wavefronts in a single metasurface under different illumination angles, Physical Review X , 7, 041056, 2017, See highlights in Caltech News , APS Physics
  15. Amir Arbabi, Ehsan Arbabi, Yu Horie, Seyedeh Mahsa Kamali, Andrei Faraon, Planar metasurface retroreflector, Nature Photonics , 11, 415–420 (2017), [doi:10.1038/nphoton.2017.96]. (Caltech news coverage)
  16. Ehsan Arbabi, Amir Arbabi, Seyedeh Mahsa Kamali, Yu Horie, Andrei Faraon, Controlling the sign of chromatic dispersion in diffractive optics with dielectric metasurfaces, Optica, Vol. 4, Issue 6, pp. 625-632 (2017), [https://doi.org/10.1364/OPTICA.4.000625], (arXiv:1701.07178) (Higlighted in Science Magazine)
  17. Amir Arbabi, Ehsan Arbabi, Seyedeh Mahsa Kamali, Yu Horie, Seunghoon Han, Andrei Faraon, Miniature optical planar camera based on a wide-angle metasurface doublet corrected for monochromatic aberrations, Nature Communications, 7, Article number: 13682, (2016), [DOI: 10.1038/ncomms13682], (arXiv:1604.06160) (media coverage) (news and views)
  18. Ehsan Arbabi, Amir Arbabi, Seyedeh Mahsa Kamali, Yu Horie, Andrei Faraon, Multiwavelength polarization-insensitive lenses based on dielectric metasurfaces with meta-molecules, Optica Vol. 3, Issue 6, pp. 628-633 (2016),[https://doi.org/10.1364/OPTICA.3.000628], (arXiv:1601.05847)
  19. Seyedeh Mahsa Kamali, Amir Arbabi, Ehsan Arbabi, Yu Horie, Andrei Faraon, Decoupling optical function and geometrical form using conformal flexible dielectric metasurfaces, Nature Communications, 7, Article number: 11618 (2016), [DOI:10.1038/ncomms11618], (arXiv:1511.04824)
  20. Mikael P. Backlund, Amir Arbabi, Petar N. Petrov, Ehsan Arbabi, Saumya Saurabh, Andrei Faraon, W. E. Moerner, Removing orientation-induced localization biases in single-molecule microscopy using a broadband metasurface mask, Nature Photonics, 10, 459–462 (2016), [DOI:10.1038/nphoton.2016.93]
  21. Amir Arbabi, Yu Horie, Mahmood Bagheri, Andrei Faraon, Dielectric metasurfaces for complete control of phase and polarization with subwavelength spatial resolution and high transmission, Nature Nanotechnology 10, 937–943 (2015), [doi:10.1038/nnano.2015.186],
  22. Amir Arbabi, Yu Horie, Alexander J. Ball, Mahmood Bagheri, Andrei Faraon, Subwavelength-thick Lenses with High Numerical Apertures and Large Efficiency Based on High Contrast Transmitarrays, Nature Communication 6:7069, 2015, (also arXiv:1410.8261 [physics.optics])