While conventional refractive optical components are typically bulky and heavy, the demand for compact, lightweight optical components is growing rapidly for various applications ranging from consumer electronics to remote sensing based on unmanned aerial vehicles or satellites [1,2]. In recent years, metasurfaces have emerged as a novel platform for wavefront control [3–11]. Composed of an array of subwavelength-spaced dielectric or metallic antennas with thickness less than or on the order of the wavelength of light, metasurfaces can accurately adjust the phase, amplitude, and polarization of light [12–30], with versatile imaging capability in a compact form factor. Currently, one of the major hurdles for the wide adoption of the metalens technology is its aperture size. Increasing the size of the lens aperture can result in a higher imaging resolution that is critical for both microscopy and long-distance imaging applications. Optical metalenses, with their nanometer-sized, aperiodic feature, are typically fabricated by processes such as electron-beam lithography (EBL) that are costly and time-consuming. Despite the recent adoption of scalable manufacturing techniques such as nanoimprinting and ultraviolet stepper lithography in metalens fabrication [31–34], the preparation of a lithography mask or imprinting mold still cannot be avoided. To date, the largest optical metalens can have an aperture size on the order of a few centimeters [32,35–37]. For certain applications, such as a space telescope, which requires a lens aperture size on the order of meters, the manufacturing of a single metalens of such scale can be extremely challenging, if not impossible, limited by the current semiconductor fabrication infrastructure.

One way to address the issue of a limited lens aperture size is to synthesize multiple apertures. A synthetic aperture can mix signals from a collection of subapertures to render an image having a resolution comparable to an aperture the size of the circumcircle of all subapertures [38–42]. It is a technology that has been widely used in the radiofrequency regime. As a landmark example, the Event Horizon Telescope project captured and retrieved the first image of the black hole M87 through aperture synthesis of a global network of radio telescopes [43]. Over the last decades, the synthetic aperture approach has also been adopted in the optical domain for applications ranging from remote sensing to microscopy [44,45].

In this work, we aim to address the aperture size limitation of the optical metalens by adopting the synthetic aperture approach. We show that, by combining multiple metalenses with relatively small aperture size, the maximum cutoff frequency (MCF) of the modulation transfer function (MTF) of the synthetic aperture metalens can be improved to a level that is comparable to a lens with an equivalent large aperture. We explore multiple metalens subaperture arrangements and experimentally demonstrate that, assisted by computational reconstruction [46–48], the synthetic aperture metalens composed of three or four subapertures can achieve an imaging resolution comparable to a conventional lens with an aperture the size double that of all subapertures combined. We further build a metalens-integrated near-infrared camera and demonstrate the enhancement of the imaging resolution using a synthetic aperture metalens in an outdoor setting using natural sunlight for target illumination. The synthetic aperture approach may effectively reduce the time required to fabricate a large area metalens using a serial process. In addition, it may open a new avenue for constructing metalenses with an effective aperture size on the meter scale, which can be extremely challenging for a single-aperture metalens design.

Figure 1 schematically shows the comparison between imaging using a conventional metalens and a synthetic aperture metalens. Here, we first assume the ideal transmission phase profile of a metalens as ϕ(x,y)=−2πλ(x2+y2+f2−f),(1)where ϕ(x,y) is the spatially dependent transmission phase of the composing optical antenna, λ=800nm is the design wavelength, and f=30mm is the focal length. Note that a relatively long focal length is desirable for providing a high magnification for objects at a faraway distance.

For a conventional single-aperture metalens, the image can be obtained through the convolution of the target object and the point spread function (PSF) of the metalens [Figs. 1(a) and 1(b)], with a typical MTF shown in Fig. 1(c). On the other hand, if we consider a synthetic aperture metalens with two subapertures along the x direction, each with an aperture size identical to the single aperture and with the transmission phase profile satisfying Eq. (1), the as-obtained image may be blurry due to the additional sidelobes in the PSF as well as the reduced intermediate frequency response of the system’s MTF. However, the MCF of the synthetic aperture is improved to a level comparable to an aperture the size of the circumcircle of both subapertures; thus, the fine feature of the target object is retained in the convoluted signal. Subsequently, a sharper image can be recovered from the as-obtained image using recovery algorithms such as the Wiener filter algorithm and the Richardson–Lucy deconvolution algorithm [49–51], with the image resolution along the x direction comparable to a single lens with an aperture size corresponding to the circumcircle of both subapertures, as shown in Fig. 1(d). In contrast, along the y direction, without aperture synthesis, the image resolution is identical to the subaperture resolution.

For an optical synthetic aperture, various aperture arrangements have been proposed, such as the “Golay,” “Y,” and “Annular” type [52]. Different arrangements can result in different aperture fill factors, equivalent aperture size, phase error, and PSF sidelobes. In this work, as a prototype, we demonstrate synthetic aperture metalenses with the three most common types of aperture arrangement based on two, three, and four subapertures, respectively. Figures 2(a)–2(c) show the schematic of the designed synthetic aperture metalenses. Each subaperture has a radius of 1 mm. For the two-subaperture metalens, the radius of the circumcircle is 2.5 mm, with a subaperture center distance of 3 mm. Consequently, the fill factor of the synthetic aperture is 0.32, as defined by the ratio of the total area of each subaperture to the area of the circumcircle [53]. Note that the fill factor effectively determines the reduction of the required time to fabricate the metalens, assuming a serial fabrication process. For the three-subaperture metalens (“Golay-3” type), the connection between the center of each subaperture forms an equilateral triangle. The radius of the circumcircle is 2.38 mm, with the side length of the equilateral triangle of 2.4 mm, corresponding to a fill factor of 0.53. For the four-subaperture metalens, the radius of the circumcircle is 2.7 mm, with a subaperture center distance of 2.4 mm, corresponding to a fill factor of 0.55. We note that although most of the literature has only considered circularly shaped subapertures in a synthetic aperture system, the planar form factor of metalenses may also make it possible to engineer the shape of the subaperture to be noncircular.

With the ideal transmission phase profile of the metalens given in Eq. (1), the MTFs of the subaperture lens, synthetic aperture metalens, and circumcircle aperture lens can be calculated using the angular spectrum method [54], as shown in Figs. 2(d)–2(i). Synthetic aperture metalenses can achieve different MCFs and intermediate frequency characteristics with varying aperture arrangements. For the two--subaperture design, along the x direction (the direction of synthesis), the MCF of the synthetic aperture metalens is nearly identical to the MCF of the circumcircle aperture lens, with a relatively small intermediate frequency response of less than 0.2. On the other hand, along the y direction, without aperture synthesis, the calculated MCF is close to the MCF of the subaperture lens. For the three-subaperture design with a larger fill factor, the improvement of the MCF can be achieved in both x and y directions, with an intermediate frequency response greater than 0.2. Similarly, the improvement of the MCF is shown in the four-subaperture design, with an intermediate frequency response greater than 0.3.

Figures 3(a)–3(c) show the schematic diagram of the metalens unit cell, an amorphous silicon (a-Si) nanopillar of a height H=600nm on a 500-μm-thick fused silica (SiO2) substrate. The a-Si is measured with a refractive index of 3.338 and a negligible absorption at λ0=800nm . We simulated the polarization-independent transmission amplitude and phase as a function of the nanopillar radius R for normally incident light, with a fixed period U=400nm [Fig. 3(d)], to serve as the library for the metalens design.

The silicon (Si)-based metalenses are fabricated by standard EBL and reactive ion-etching process. 100-nm-thick aluminum was coated around the subapertures to prevent the transmission of background light outside of the lens aperture. The optical images of fabricated synthetic aperture metalenses are shown in Fig. 3(e). A representative scanning electron microscopy (SEM) image of the fabricated sample is shown in Fig. 3(f). The focusing efficiencies of metalenses with two, three, and four subapertures are experimentally measured and estimated to be 44%, 57%, and 57%, respectively. The relatively low focusing efficiency in the experiment may be due to the size discrepancy of the nano-cylinder as well as defects in the fabricated metalens sample.

The calculated PSFs of the synthetic aperture metalenses of two, three, and four subapertures are shown in Figs. 3(g)–3(i), respectively. To measure the PSF of the synthetic aperture metalens experimentally, we used a collimated laser beam with a central wavelength of 800 nm and a bandwidth of 10 nm as the source. Light impinging from each subaperture is coherently synthesized on the focal plane of the lens, which corresponds to its PSF intensity distribution. The focal plane images, or PSFs, of the metalenses, as shown in Figs. 3(j)–3(l), were captured by a near-infrared camera after image magnification using an objective and a tube lens. Figures 3(m)–3(o) show a comparison of the horizontal cuts of the calculated and measured PSF. For the three- and four-subaperture metalenses, a close agreement between the calculation and measurement is achieved, despite the fact that a relatively large sidelobe in the PSF is measured for the two-subaperture metalens. This is likely due to the fact that the two-subaperture metalens has a lower fill factor and a larger portion of the lens resides toward the edge of the circumcircle of the lens with a large phase gradient, which makes it more susceptible to phase error due to fabrication imperfection.

Subsequently, we used the 1951 United States Air Force (USAF) resolution test chart (Thorlabs Inc.) to compare the resolving power of synthetic aperture metalenses with conventional single-aperture lenses. Figures 4(a)–4(c) show images of the test chart groups 6 and 7 taken using a conventional plano–convex lens (Daheng Optics GCBZ-125L, f=30mm) with its aperture radius cut to 1, 2.38, and 2.7 mm, respectively, using pinholes that correspond to the radius of the circumcircle of the synthetic aperture metalenses of two, three, and four subapertures, respectively. In comparison, Figs. 4(d)–4(f) show images directly taken from the synthetic aperture metalenses of two, three, and four subapertures. With the measured PSF of the synthetic aperture metalenses, sharper images are recovered from the relatively blurry as-obtained images from the synthetic aperture metalenses, using the Richardson–Lucy deconvolution algorithm, which is a relatively robust iterative algorithm widely used for recovering a blurred image with a known PSF of the imaging system [55,56]; the recovered images are shown in Figs. 4(g)–4(i). The quality of the recovered image is quantified with the metric of peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) and structural similarity (SSIM) [57], using the image taken by the conventional lens of 2.7-mm-aperture-radius [Fig. 4(c)] as a reference. As is shown in Fig. 4(g), the quality of the image recovered from the two-subaperture metalens is quite poor, likely due to its relatively small fill factor and the rather large sidelobe in its measured PSF. Nevertheless, one can still clearly observe the anisotropy of the image resolution enhancement, with much larger resolution enhancement along the x direction (the direction of aperture synthesis), for the two-subaperture metalens [white dashed box in Fig. 4(g)]. In contrast, the quality of images recovered from both the three-subaperture and four-subaperture metalenses is comparable to the image taken by the conventional lenses with an aperture radius of their circumcircle. Both the three-subaperture metalens and the corresponding conventional lens can resolve features up to the element 2 of group 7 [white dashed boxes in Figs. 4(b) and 4(h)], while both the four-subaperture metalens and the corresponding conventional lens can resolve features up to the element 3 of group 7 [white dashed boxes in Figs. 4(c) and 4(i)], demonstrating the effectiveness of the synthetic aperture approach to achieve a comparable imaging resolution using about half the aperture size of a single aperture lens. We further notice the PSNR and SSIM value for the four-subaperture metalens are similar to that of the three-subaperture metalens, which is likely due to the larger sidelobe in the PSF and more prominent ghost noise measured for the four-subaperture metalens. In general, ghost noise in the recovered images, as shown in Figs. 4(h) and 4(i), may be further improved by alternative image recovery methods such as Wiener deconvolution or deep learning, although those methods may require a good estimation of the noise power spectrum of the image or prior knowledge of the scene [58–60].

To further validate the approach, we integrated the synthetic aperture metalens of three subapertures with a near-infrared camera for imaging in the outdoor environment using natural sunlight for illumination. The photograph of the metalens-integrated camera is shown in Fig. 5(a). The distance between the camera sensor and the three-subaperture metalens is set to its focal length to achieve a deep depth of field. We use natural sunlight to illuminate the target (a Tsinghua University logo) placed about 7 m away from the camera. Here, a bandpass filter with a central wavelength of 800 nm and a bandwidth of 10 nm is inserted before the metalens due to the chromatic aberration of the lens; however, note that the relatively small numerical aperture of the lens may largely simplify the design of an achromatic version of a synthetic aperture metalens [61]. To demonstrate resolution enhancement using the synthetic aperture metalens-integrated camera, two images were first taken with a conventional lens with an aperture radius corresponding to the subaperture and circumcircle aperture radius of the three-subaperture metalens, as shown in Figs. 5(b) and 5(c), respectively. In comparison, the recovered image from the three-subaperture metalens can resolve the fine lines of the target [black dashed box in Fig. 5(f)], with a resolving power comparable to the conventional circumcircle-aperture lens [black dashed box in Fig. 5(c)], and greatly improved in comparison with the conventional subaperture lens [black dashed box in Fig. 5(b)]. Note that the gravel-like noise pattern in the background of Fig. 5(f) originates from the image acquisition, not from the image recovery process.

In summary, we demonstrate that it is an effective approach to synthesize multiple metalenses, each with a relatively small aperture size, to achieve an imaging resolution comparable to a single aperture metalens with a much larger aperture size. Despite that here we present a polarization-independent synthetic aperture metalens working only for a limited wavelength range, one can leverage the rapid development in other sectors of the metalens technology and construct novel multifunctional synthetic aperture metalenses that may be polarization-dependent [23,62], achromatic [61,63–65], or that can even sense the depth of a scene [26,66,67]. Using flat optical components, a plethora of novel subaperture arrangements that are difficult to realize by bulk lenses due to manufacturing constraints can be envisaged. By combining even more metalenses with a millimeter or centimeter size, it may provide a pathway towards constructing a synthetic aperture metalens with an equivalent aperture size on a much larger scale, thus opening up new avenues for numerous exciting applications ahead.

Acknowledgment. This work was supported by the Center of High Performance Computing, Tsinghua University.