Jize Yan

Large-wafer-scale metalenses offer strong potential for next-generation imaging and sensing; however, their realization by maskless electron-beam lithography (EBL) remains constrained by full-lens electromagnetic validation, large-scale layout and data handling, cross-wafer nano-fabrication uniformity, and practical optical testing—limitations that become particularly acute as the aperture expands to centimeter scale. Here we introduce an EBL-enabled wafer-scale metalens platform that addresses these bottlenecks within a unified workflow. A symmetry-reduction simulation strategy preserves near field fidelity while reducing the computational cost of full-lens modeling by more than four orders of magnitude. To overcome the data-generation and throughput constraints intrinsic to serial EBL, we implement a distributed, vectorized layout pipeline that accelerates design generation from several hours to less than 5 minutes for a 100-mm-diameter pattern (distributed over 10 compute nodes) and supports pipelined data transfer via sub-layout partitioning. On the fabrication side, CMOS-compatible pattern transfer combined with an optimized Bosch DRIE process delivers high structural uniformity across an 8-inch wafer, reducing the etch-depth deviation from 1.81 µm to 0.89 µm at a 6 µm depth. Using this platform, we fabricate a 100-mm-diameter silicon metalens (NA = 0.25) on an 8-inch wafer operaing at λ = 10 µm, demonstrating uniform focusing and thermal imaging. Together, this integrated route extends EBL beyond small-scale prototyping and establishes a scalable foundation for wafer-scale metalenses in practical imaging and sensing systems.

Metasurfaces offer compact, lightweight alternatives to conventional optics by enabling precise wavefront control with subwavelength nanostructures. However, the mechanical fragility of pillar‐based configurations limits their applicability in practical systems, particularly under routine handling and cleaning. Here, we report a mechanically robust metasurface architecture in which high refractive index nanopillars are encapsulated within a conformal SiO ₂ layer. Numerical simulations indicate that the embedded design maintains stable focusing efficiency over a wide range of surrounding refractive index values of common operational media such as air, water, and oil, whereas pillar‐based structures exhibit significant degradation. Experimentally, the embedded design preserves diffraction‐limited focusing and high‐contrast imaging performance. After standard mechanical cleaning, the embedded metasurface maintains over 90% of its initial focusing efficiency, while unprotected metasurfaces exhibit an efficiency reduction of approximately 88%. The near‐symmetric dielectric layer enhances orientation‐independent optical response, demonstrating identical imaging performance under forward and reverse illumination. A magnification ratio of 1.29 is observed between two configurations. This ratio arises from the difference in object distances, which is caused by the thickness differences in the substrate and the encapsulated SiO ₂ layer. This CMOS‐compatible, bidirectional, and mechanically stable metasurface platform provides a scalable approach to integrated flat optics for advanced imaging and sensing applications.

An optically levitated nanoparticle in a vacuum provides an ideal platform for ultra-precision measurements and fundamental physics studies because of the exceptionally high-quality factor and rich motion modes, which can be engineered by manipulating the optical field and the geometry of the nanoparticle. Nanofabrication technology with the ability to create arbitrary nanostructure arrays offers a precise way of engineering the optical field and the geometry of the nanoparticle. Here, for the first time, we optically levitate and rotate a nanofabricated nanorod via a nanofabricated a-Si metalens which strongly focuses a 1550 nm laser beam with a numerical aperture of 0.953. By manipulating the laser beam’s polarization, the levitated nanorod’s translation frequencies can be tuned, and the spin rotation mode can be switched on and off. Then, we showed the control of rotational frequency by changing the laser beam’s intensity and polarization as well as the air pressure. Finally, a MHz spin rotation frequency of the nanorod is achieved in the experiment. This is the first demonstration of controlled optical spin in a metalens-based compact optical levitation system. Our research holds promise for realizing scalable on-chip integrated optical levitation systems.

Structured light beams are attracting researchers’ attention in many research fields because of their powerful application potential in classic and quantum fields ranging from laser communication, superresolution imaging, and lithography, to multidimensional optical manipulation.^{1 – 5} The vector vortex beam (VVB), as a special group of structured light beams, has a spatially inhomogeneous state of polarization (SOP) and phase profile on its cross section that makes it carry orbital angular momentum (OAM) and spin angular momentum (SAM).⁶

Mode localization, predicted in solid-state physics, has attracted great attention in coupled micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) resonators for ultrasensitive sensing. Compared to MEMS resonators, optical microresonators can achieve high-quality factors without the need for vacuum conditions. In this work, we extended the mode localization effect to integrated optical microresonators, and experimentally demonstrated, for the first time, mode localized sensing in coupled optical microresonators. The optical mode-localization sensor consists of two coupled microring resonators. Strong coupling results in the appearance of symmetric (S) and antisymmetric (AS) resonances. When external perturbations, like thermal perturbations, are applied to one microring, optical energy will be unevenly distributed in the two microrings, giving rise to changes in the extinction ratios (ERs) of the two resonances. The phenomenon is called optical mode localization. By changing the local thermal perturbation, the ERs of the S and AS resonance can be changed by 26.67 dB and 21.24 dB, respectively. Mode localized sensing with high sensitivity can be achieved by evaluating the variation of resonances’ transmitted power. It is demonstrated that the variations of transmitted power at the AS and S resonances can be three orders of magnitude greater than the corresponding variation in the resonant wavelength for an induced perturbation in temperature. The experimental results agree well with the theoretical calculation. This work demonstrates the feasibility of achieving mode-localized sensing in integrated optical microresonators and has great potential to significantly expand the scope of mode-localized sensing applications.

Dielectric metasurfaces have emerged as attractive devices for advanced imaging systems because of their high efficiency, ability of wavefront manipulation, and lightweight. The classical spin‐multiplexing metasurfaces can only provide two orthogonal circular polarization channels and require high phase contrast which limits their applications. Here, metasurfaces with arbitrary three independent channels are demonstrated by proposing a nonclassical spin‐multiplexing approach exploring the low refractive index meta‐atoms. A zoom microscope with on‐axis tri‐foci and a synchronous achiral‐chiral microscope with in‐plane tri‐foci based on silicon nitride metasurfaces are experimentally demonstrated. Based on the on‐axis tri‐foci metasurface, singlet zoom imaging with three magnifications and a broadband response (blue to red) based on a single metasurface is first demonstrated. A compact microscope (meta‐scope) consisting of two metasurfaces with three magnifications of 9.5, 10, and 29X with diffraction‐limited resolutions is further constructed, respectively. Utilizing the in‐plane tri‐foci metasurface, a singlet microscope with three achiral‐chiral channels is demonstrated. It offers a magnification of 53X and a diffraction‐limited resolution, enabling simultaneous imaging of an object's achiral and chiral properties. Our multifunctional metasurfaces and meta‐scope approaches could boost the applications in biological imaging and machine vision.

Optically levitated multiple nanoparticles have emerged as a platform for studying complex fundamental physics such as non‐equilibrium phenomena, quantum entanglement, and light–matter interaction, which could be applied for sensing weak forces and torques with high sensitivity and accuracy. An optical trapping landscape of increased complexity is needed to engineer the interaction between levitated particles beyond the single harmonic trap. However, existing platforms based on spatial light modulators for studying interactions between levitated particles suffered from low efficiency, instability at focal points, the complexity of optical systems, and the scalability for sensing applications. Here, we experimentally demonstrated that a metasurface which forms two diffraction‐limited focal points with a high numerical aperture (∼0.9) and high efficiency (31 %) can generate tunable optical potential wells without any intensity fluctuations. A bistable potential and double potential wells were observed in the experiment by varying the focal points’ distance, and two nanoparticles were levitated in double potential wells for hours, which could be used for investigating the levitated particles’ nonlinear dynamics, thermal dynamics and optical binding. This would pave the way for scaling the number of levitated optomechanical devices or realizing paralleled levitated sensors.

Dielectric metalens has emerged as an attractive device for advanced imaging system because of its powerful manipulation ability of light beam, small volume, and light weight. However, the applications of silicon nitride (Si3N4) metalens are limited by the low refraction index of Si3N4, and multi-foci metalens has not been realized based on a Si3N4 metalens. Here, we deeply explore the working mechanism of a truncated waveguide meta-atom and obtain a Si3N4 metalens with longitudinal three diffraction-limited focal points. By utilizing the metalens sample as a condenser lens, a commercial microscope can obtain three magnifications based on a single objective lens. Finally, an infinity-corrected microscope with three high magnifications (9.5X, 10X, and 29X) and diffraction-limited resolution is integrated into centimetre-dimension for the first time by using the tri-foci metalens sample as an objective lens. This research would boost the scaling up of metalens microscope as well as the multifunctional application of Si3N4 metalens.