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R_www.forbes.com_technology 2015 00083.txt

#Goodbye iphone Bulge: This Technology Reduces Lenses To The Thickness Of A Credit card A team of scientists at the Harvard School of engineering and Applied sciences has developed a radical new technology which could replace the bulky optical components we use today with an ultra-thin and completely flat etasurfacelens. Following on from advances first shown in 2012, the metasurface lens consists of a flat glass surface coated with microscopic silicon antennae which bend incident light by precisely amounts which can be designed pre algorithmically to create lenses of differing strengths. Until now, the amount of light bending has varied considerably depending on the wavelength of the incident light. However the latest improvements to the technology can compensate for this, allowing different coloured beams of light to be focused on a single point with a single metasurface lens. According to principal investigator Federico Capasso, the Robert L. Wallace Professor of Applied Physics and Vinton Hayes Senior Research Fellow in Electrical engineering at Harvard SEAS, omplicated effects like color correction, which in a conventional optical system would require light to pass through several thick lenses in sequence, can be achieved in one extremely thin, miniaturized device Traditional lenses (left) require a number of thick optical elements to focus different wavelengths of light, unlike the achromatic metasurface (right), which focuses multiple wavelengths to a single point from one flat surface. Traditional lenses (left) require a number of thick optical elements to focus different wavelengths of light, unlike the achromatic metasurface (right), which focuses multiple wavelengths to a single point from one flat surface. While the majority of photographic lenses are constructed from multiple individual lens elements, each of a considerable thickness and curvature, the new metasurface technology performs the same optical function with a single, completely flat element. Taking the iphone 6 as an example, the rear isight camera uses five individual lens elements stacked on top of each other, resulting in a thick lens module which creates the familiar protruding lens bulge at the back of the phone t

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