US 12,189,219 B2
Optical devices with phase-change materials
Juejun Hu, Newton, MA (US); Tian Gu, Fairfax, VA (US); Yifei Zhang, Cambridge, MA (US); Carlos Andres Rios Ocampo, Somerville, MA (US); Mikhail Shalaginov, Somerville, MA (US); and Xiaoming Qiu, Somerville, MA (US)
Assigned to Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA (US)
Filed by Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA (US)
Filed on Feb. 23, 2021, as Appl. No. 17/183,267.
Claims priority of provisional application 63/014,161, filed on Apr. 23, 2020.
Prior Publication US 2021/0333575 A1, Oct. 28, 2021
Int. Cl. G02F 1/01 (2006.01)
CPC G02F 1/0147 (2013.01) [G02F 2202/30 (2013.01); G02F 2203/69 (2013.01)] 32 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A tunable meta-lens comprising:
a substrate;
a first array of meta-atoms disposed on the substrate, wherein the first array of meta-atoms includes a plurality of meta-atoms, each meta-atom of the plurality of meta-atoms being formed from a first material;
a first phase-change material disposed adjacent to the first material of each meta-atom of the plurality of meta-atoms; and
a first heater, in thermal communication with the first array of meta-atoms, to heat the first array of meta-atoms, thereby changing the first phase-change material, at least in part, between an amorphous state with a first refractive index and a crystalline state with a second refractive index different from the first refractive index by at least 0.1, the change between the amorphous state and the crystalline state changing at least a portion of a wavefront of an optical beam passing through the tunable meta-lens.