ORCID

0009-0002-5439-313X

Keywords

metasurface, metalens, MWIR, Dispersive Sweatt Model, process-aware design, silicon photonics

Subject Categories

Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics | Electrical and Computer Engineering | Optics

Abstract

Mid-wave infrared (MWIR) optical systems require compact, broadband, manufacturable components whose performance can be predicted and measured reliably. Silicon metalenses are attractive because silicon combines high refractive index, MWIR transparency, and semiconductor-compatible fabrication. This dissertation develops a scale-bridging design–fabrication-modeling–metrology framework for MWIR silicon metalenses.

A shared full-aperture framework connects meta-atom libraries, physical layout generation, angular-spectrum propagation, point-spread-function calculation, and focal-plane energy metrics. Building on this foundation, the Dispersive Sweatt Model (DSM) incorporates meta-atom dispersion into conventional ray-tracing software, enabling broadband co-optimization of metasurfaces and refractive elements. A process-aware design framework then incorporates scanning electron microscopy (SEM)-measured height–radius relationships produced by deep reactive ion etching into phase-library sampling and layout generation. For representative nanopillar and nanohole singlets, ignoring the measured height variation reduced simulated focusing efficiency to 43.75% and 13.05%, respectively, whereas process-aware corrected layouts recovered efficiencies above 99%.

Finally, a bulk-lens-referenced focal-plane workflow characterizes an externally fabricated MWIR metalens on a common bench. Registered point-spread functions, encircled-energy radii, captured focal-plane fraction, and exposure-normalized detector signal distinguish spatial energy concentration from relative signal magnitude. Because the bulk-reference core was saturation limited and incident power and detector linearity were not independently calibrated, these results are bounded detector-domain comparisons rather than absolute focusing efficiency or optical throughput. The measurements do not validate the DSM or process-aware compensation framework. Together, these contributions establish a practical framework for designing, modeling, and evaluating MWIR silicon metalenses.

Completion Date

2026

Semester

Summer

Committee Chair

Christopher Kyle Renshaw

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)

College

College of Optics and Photonics

Format

PDF

Document Type

Dissertation

Language

English

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