300-unit-per-second roll-to-roll manufacturing of visible metalenses

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Abstract
Metasurfaces have been extensively studied over the past decade for their ability to manipulate light at subwavelength scales1. One of the most critical trends emerging recently has been scalable manufacturing, which is paving the way for the commercialization and industrial adoption of metasurfaces2,3. However, the production throughput of metasurfaces has so far largely remained at the academic level, limiting their practical deployment. Here we demonstrate the roll-to-roll nanoimprinting of visible metalenses for large-scale, cost-effective and fully automated manufacturing at industrial-level throughput. Our system achieves a production rate of 300 metalenses per second, with a cost comparable with—or even lower than—that of conventional refractive optics. A conformal high-index titanium dioxide layer is deposited via atomic layer deposition to dramatically enhance optical performance. Experimental characterization confirms high optical efficiency and uniformity across the full patterned area, with consistently high yields. This work shows potential for the transition of metasurface technology from academic research to the real world.

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