Metalens Images the Moon

physicsworld.com

11 points·ChuckMcM··7 comments

So a loooong time ago the lab next door to the one I worked in at USC was the optics lab where Dr. Tim Strand was looking at making lens systems as holograms. Basically using a hologram lens to focus light like a "real" lens would. It was kind of far out but it did offer the promise of "flat" lenses.

This is another approach (meta materials) which modify the light after it arrives. A really cool result!

For reference, looks like this lens can resolve a feature size of 80km. For comparison, it looks like a 6" telescope can resolve 2km according [1].

[1] https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-minimum-power-telescope-ne...

> The telescope achieved superior resolving power and produced clear images of the surface of the Moon.

1. Superior to what? Certainly not convetnional lenses.

2. Why are these images not published?

To self-answer the 2nd quesion, the image is published in the linked article, and accessible free-of-charge in the pre-print published on arXiv (figure 5d): https://arxiv.org/pdf/2205.12739.pdf

"We identified some features of the lunar surface, such as the Sea of Rains, the Sea of Serenity, the Sea of Tranquility, the Ocean of Storms, the Sea of Tranquility, and the Copernicus crater, from the obtained image"

Some of these are visible to the naked eye. I'd like a better explanation of how exactly the images are 'superior'

The article had a discussion about how existing metalenses were limited in size. So, I assume they're saying this metalense is superior to the state of the art in the field of metalenses.

Look forward to seeing these results

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