Metasurface lens design for next-generation AR and VR systems

A multi-university research team led by ISN-affiliated MIT professor Steven Johnson and a Harvard faculty member has devised a new approach to the design of metasurface lenses that may advantageous to the development of advanced augmented reality and virtual reality systems. Previously, metalens design relied significantly on the experience and intuition of their creators. This new system incorporates artificial intelligence and machine learning techniques to automatically optimize across the many milllions of parameters necessary to make a functioning metalens. Such a system could lead to the larger lenses needed to make AR and VR more practical, and could also improve vision systems in self-driving automobiles and aerial vehicles.
An illustration of a red cat running on a black background

A gif made from a VR imaging movie showing a running cat. The near-eye display has a refresh rate of 60 Hz. Image: Li, Z., Pestourie, R., Park, JS. et al. Inverse design enables large-scale high-performance meta-optics reshaping virtual reality. Nat Commun 13, 2409 (2022).

The fabricated metalens together with a micro-LCD display showing a Harvard logo.

The fabricated metalens together with a micro-LCD display showing a Harvard logo. Image: Capasso Lab/Harvard SEAS

VR images of a red, green, and blue circles; a Harvard tower in red, green, and blue; different frames showing a running cat on a black background

Virtual-reality imaging demo of color mixing and movie — a–c VR images of a red, green, and blue circles, respectively. The scale bar is 100 µm unless noted. d Simulated VR image by superposing a–c. e–g Grayscale VR imaging results of a Harvard tower in red, green, and blue channels, respectively. h Simulated full-color VR imaging result by combining RGB image channels shown in e–g. i–l A VR imaging movie at different frames showing a running cat. The movie can be found in the supplementary material. The near-eye display has a refresh rate of 60 Hz. Image: Li, Z., Pestourie, R., Park, JS. et al. Inverse design enables large-scale high-performance meta-optics reshaping virtual reality. Nat Commun 13, 2409 (2022).