An official website of the United States government
Programmable and reconfigurable optics hold significant potential for transforming a broad spectrum of applications, spanning space explorations to biomedical imaging, gas sensing, and optical cloaking. The ability to adjust the optical properties of components like filters, lenses, and beam steering devices could result in dramatic reductions in size, weight, and power consumption in future optoelectronic devices. Among the potential candidates for reconfigurable optics, chalcogenide‐based phase change materials (PCMs) offer great promise due to their non‐volatile and analogue switching characteristics. Although PCM have found widespread use in electronic data storage, these memory devices are deeply sub‐micron‐sized. To incorporate phase change materials into free‐space optical components, it is essential to scale them up to beyond several hundreds of microns while maintaining reliable switching characteristics. This study demonstrated a non‐mechanical, non‐volatile transmissive filter based on low‐loss PCMs with a 200 × 200 µm2switching area. The device/metafilter can be consistently switched between low‐ and high‐transmission states using electrical pulses with a switching contrast ratio of 5.5 dB. The device was reversibly switched for 1250 cycles before accelerated degradation took place. The work represents an important step toward realizing free‐space reconfigurable optics based on PCMs.
more »
« less
This content will become publicly available on March 6, 2027
AI-driven hybrid end-to-end inverse-design for reconfigurable metaphotonics
Dynamic photonics enables applications in LiDAR, reconfigurable optics, and computational imaging. Phase-change materials (PCMs), such as volatile VO₂ and non-volatile GeSe₃, are promising for multifunctional devices due to their large stimulus-driven optical changes. Yet, designing free-space metaphotonics across multiple material states remains challenging for conventional, library-based methods. Device performance depends on coupled electromagnetic and thermal physics, creating a high-dimensional design space. We present a deep learning–based inverse design framework that integrates coupled electro-thermal modeling and fabrication constraints directly into the optimization loop, ensuring physically accurate and manufacturable outcomes. This approach captures the coupled nature of the problem and enables performance-optimized devices beyond proof-of-concept. We validate our methodology through theory, fabrication, and characterization of a reconfigurable metaphotonic imaging application, providing an end-to-end pathway for advancing dynamic flat optics.
more »
« less
- Award ID(s):
- 2212533
- PAR ID:
- 10706786
- Publisher / Repository:
- SPIE Proceedings Volume PC13909
- Date Published:
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
More Like this
-
-
null (Ed.)Most modern commodity imaging systems we use directly for photography—or indirectly rely on for downstream applications—employ optical systems of multiple lenses that must balance deviations from perfect optics, manufacturing constraints, tolerances, cost, and footprint. Although optical designs often have complex interactions with downstream image processing or analysis tasks, today’s compound optics are designed in isolation from these interactions. Existing optical design tools aim to minimize optical aberrations, such as deviations from Gauss’ linear model of optics, instead of application-specific losses, precluding joint optimization with hardware image signal processing (ISP) and highly parameterized neural network processing. In this article, we propose an optimization method for compound optics that lifts these limitations. We optimize entire lens systems jointly with hardware and software image processing pipelines, downstream neural network processing, and application-specific end-to-end losses. To this end, we propose a learned, differentiable forward model for compound optics and an alternating proximal optimization method that handles function compositions with highly varying parameter dimensions for optics, hardware ISP, and neural nets. Our method integrates seamlessly atop existing optical design tools, such as Zemax . We can thus assess our method across many camera system designs and end-to-end applications. We validate our approach in an automotive camera optics setting—together with hardware ISP post processing and detection—outperforming classical optics designs for automotive object detection and traffic light state detection. For human viewing tasks, we optimize optics and processing pipelines for dynamic outdoor scenarios and dynamic low-light imaging. We outperform existing compartmentalized design or fine-tuning methods qualitatively and quantitatively, across all domain-specific applications tested.more » « less
-
Abstract The development of infrared (IR) plastic optics for infrared thermal imaging, particularly, in the long‐wave IR (LWIR) spectrum (7–14 µm) is an area of growing technological interest due to the potential advantages associated with plastic optics (e.g., moldability and low cost). The development of a new class of optical polymers, chalcogenide‐based inorganic/organic hybrid polymers (CHIPs) derived from the inverse vulcanization of elemental sulfur, has enabled significant improvements in IR transparency due to reduction of IR absorbing organic comonomer units. The vast majority of effort has focused on new chalcogenide hybrid polymer synthesis and optical property improvements (e.g., refractive index, Abbe number, and LWIR transmission); however, fabrication and IR imaging methodology to prepare optical components has not been demonstrated, which remains critical to develop viable IR plastic optics. A new methodology is reported to fabricate optical components and evaluate LWIR imaging performance of this emerging class of optical polymers. New diffractive flat optics with a Fresnel lens design for these materials have been developed, along with a basic LWIR imaging system to evaluate CHIPs for LWIR imaging. This system‐based approach enables correspondence of copolymer structure‐property correlations with LWIR imaging performance, along with demonstration of room temperature LWIR imaging.more » « less
-
Abstract Solutions for scalable, high-performance optical control are important for the development of scaled atom-based quantum technologies. Modulation of many individual optical beams is central to applying arbitrary gate and control sequences on arrays of atoms or atom-like systems. At telecom wavelengths, miniaturization of optical components via photonic integration has pushed the scale and performance of classical and quantum optics far beyond the limitations of bulk devices. However, material platforms for high-speed telecom integrated photonics lack transparency at the short wavelengths required by leading atomic systems. Here, we propose and implement a scalable and reconfigurable photonic control architecture using integrated, visible-light modulators based on thin-film lithium niobate. We combine this system with techniques in free-space optics and holography to demonstrate multi-channel, gigahertz-rate visible beamshaping. When applied to silicon-vacancy artificial atoms, our system enables the spatial and spectral addressing of a dynamically-selectable set of these stochastically-positioned point emitters.more » « less
-
Reconfigurable or programmable photonic devices are rapidly growing and have become an integral part of many optical systems. The ability to selectively modulate electromagnetic waves through electrical stimuli is crucial in the advancement of a variety of applications from data communication and computing devices to environmental science and space explorations. Chalcogenide‐based phase‐change materials (PCMs) are one of the most promising material candidates for reconfigurable photonics due to their large optical contrast between their different solid‐state structural phases. Although significant efforts have been devoted to accurate simulation of PCM‐based devices, in this paper, three important aspects which have often evaded prior models yet having significant impacts on the thermal and phase transition behavior of these devices are highlighted: the enthalpy of fusion, the heat capacity change upon glass transition, as well as the thermal conductivity of liquid‐phase PCMs. The important topic of switching energy scaling in PCM devices, which also helps explain why the three above‐mentioned effects have long been overlooked in electronic PCM memories but only become important in photonics, is further investigated. These findings offer insight to facilitate accurate modeling of PCM‐based photonic devices and can inform the development of more efficient reconfigurable optics.more » « less
