WO2022017199A1 - Super-structured lens array based large-view-field integrated microscopic imaging device - Google Patents

Abstract

A super-structured lens array (2) based large-view-field integrated microscopic imaging device, comprising: a light source (1), a super-structured lens array (2), a linear polarizer (3) and an image sensor (5), wherein the linear polarizer (3) is fixed at the rear of the light source (1), and the linear polarizer (3) is located on an emergent light path of the light source (1); the super-structured lens array (2) is fixed at the rear of the linear polarizer (3), and the super-structured lens array (2) is located on an emergent light path of the linear polarizer (3); an object (6) to be imaged is located between the linear polarizer (3) and the super-structured lens array (2); the image sensor (5) is located at the rear of the super-structured lens array (2); and the super-structured lens array (2) comprises a plurality of super-structured lenses which are arranged periodically. The imaging field of view can be enlarged without sacrificing the resolution, thus also increasing the working distance.

Description

A Large Field of View Integrated Microscopic Imaging Device Based on Metalens Array

This application claims the priority of the Chinese patent application filed on July 22, 2020, with the application number of 202010709243.8 and the invention titled "A large field of view integrated microscopic imaging device based on metalens The entire contents of this application are incorporated by reference.

technical field

The invention relates to the field of microscopic imaging, in particular to a large field of view integrated microscopic imaging device based on a metal lens array.

Background technique

In the field of optical microscopy imaging, obtaining a large field of view and high resolution at the same time is one of the important goals of optical microscopy imaging. However, due to the limitation of the spatial bandwidth product of the imaging principle of traditional optical microscopes, the field of view must be reduced when using high-magnification objective lenses, and it is impossible to achieve high-resolution and large-field imaging at the same time. On the other hand, the complicated optical system also makes the microscope more and more complicated, bulky and expensive, which greatly limits the promotion and application of the microscope. In order to break the bottleneck of coupling magnification and field of view caused by a single optical axis of lens imaging, lensless microscopic imaging and bionic fly-eye lens arrays have been proposed to achieve large field of view and high-resolution imaging. However, the lensless imaging process is not directly visualized, and the final image quality depends on the image processing algorithm. In recent years, people have proposed various improved algorithms to improve the effect of reconstructed images, but still rely on image post-processing; artificial compound eye devices either require Bent photodetectors either suffer from severe image distortion or lack self-adjustment capabilities, so there is an urgent need to improve these problems.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The purpose of the present invention is to provide an integrated microscopic imaging device with a large field of view based on a metal lens array, so as to expand the imaging field of view without sacrificing the resolution and increasing the working distance.

For achieving the above object, the present invention provides the following scheme:

A large field of view integrated microscopic imaging device based on a metalens array, comprising: a light source, a metalens array, a linear polarizer and an image sensor;

The linear polarizer is fixed behind the light source, and the linear polarizer is located on the outgoing light path of the light source; the metalens array is fixed behind the linear polarizer, and the metalens is The array is located on the outgoing light path of the linear polarizer; the object to be imaged is located between the linear polarizer and the metal lens array; the image sensor is located behind the metal lens array;

The meta-lens array includes a plurality of meta-lenses arranged periodically, and the phase distribution of the meta-lenses in the first polarized light and the second polarized light satisfies:

in,

is the phase of metalens p in the first polarized light, λ _{p1 is the wavelength of metalens} p in the first polarized light, f p1 is the focal length of metalens p in the first polarized light, and metalens p is in the first polarized light The center coordinate of polarized light is (0,0), and (x,y) is the in-plane coordinate of metalens p;

_{is the phase of the metalens} p in the second polarized light; λ _{p2 is the wavelength of the metalens} p in the second polarized light, f p2 is the focal length of the metalens p in the second polarized light, (a, b) represents the superstructure The relative offset position between the center of the structuring lens p under the second polarized light and the center of the metalens p under the first polarized light.

Optionally, the method further includes: a quarter-wave plate; the quarter-wave plate is fixed behind the linear polarizer and is located between the linear polarizer and the meta-lens array.

Optionally, by adjusting the spatial relationship between the optical axis of the quarter-wave plate and the polarization direction of the linear polarizer, the polarization state of the outgoing light from the quarter-wave plate is adjusted; the polarization of the outgoing light is adjusted. States include; linearly polarized light, elliptically polarized light, and circularly polarized light.

Optionally, the periodic arrangement of the metalens in the metalens array includes: tetragonal lattice arrangement and hexagonal lattice arrangement.

Optionally, the arrangement period of the lenses in the first lens array is the same as the arrangement period of the lenses in the second lens array; the first lens array is the metal lens array when the first polarized light is incident. A lens array, wherein the second lens array is a lens array of the meta-lens array when the second polarized light is incident.

Optionally, the arrangement period of the lenses in the first lens array is different from the arrangement period of the lenses in the second lens array; the first lens array is the metal lens array when the first polarized light is incident. A lens array, wherein the second lens array is a lens array of the meta-lens array when the second polarized light is incident.

Optionally, the geometric shapes of the metalens in the metalens array include circles, ellipses and polygons.

According to the specific embodiments provided by the present invention, the present invention discloses the following technical effects:

The invention adopts the nested meta-lens array of polarization multiplexing, and can obtain two sets of single lens arrays with complementary fields of view by switching the polarization, can eliminate the blind area of the field of view generated by the array composed of single lenses, and can obtain the full range of vision without mechanical movement. The information of the field of view, using the arrangement of the lens array to break the contradiction between the field of view and the resolution in the traditional microscope system, realize the large field of view and high-resolution microscopic imaging without sacrificing the resolution and increasing the working distance. Secondly, the present invention has expansibility, the designed and processed lens array area is the field of view of the microscope, and the resolution will not be degraded while expanding the field of view.

In addition, the present invention has a simple design, only involves a single-layer polarization multiplexing metal lens array, and does not need to align and assemble the multi-layer lenses. Moreover, the polarization multiplexing meta-lens array used in the present invention belongs to the flat lens array, which is ultra-thin in volume, compatible with microelectronics preparation technology, suitable for mass production, and the flat-plate ultra-thin structure is convenient for integration with image sensors.

Instruction drawings

In order to more clearly illustrate the embodiments of the present invention or the technical solutions in the prior art, the accompanying drawings required in the embodiments will be briefly introduced below. Obviously, the drawings in the following description are only some of the present invention. In the embodiments, for those of ordinary skill in the art, other drawings can also be obtained according to these drawings without creative labor.

1 is a schematic structural diagram of a large field of view integrated microscopic imaging device based on a metalens array according to the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of the periodic arrangement of the metalens array;

3 is a schematic diagram of the lens array of the meta-lens array of Embodiment 1 when two polarized lights are incident;

Fig. 4 is the focusing simulation result diagram of the metal lens array of embodiment 1 when two polarized lights are incident;

5 is an optical micrograph of the metalens array of Example 2;

6 is a schematic diagram of a large field of view imaging obtained by a large field of view integrated microscopic imaging device based on a metalens array according to the present invention;

FIG. 7 is a comparison diagram of an optical micrograph of a biological sample and a large-field-of-view micrograph obtained by the large-field-of-view integrated microscopic imaging device based on the metalens array of the present invention.

Symbol Description:

Light source-1, metal lens array-2, linear polarizer-3, quarter-wave plate-4, image sensor-5, object to be imaged-6.

detailed description

The technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention will be clearly and completely described below with reference to the accompanying drawings in the embodiments of the present invention. Obviously, the described embodiments are only a part of the embodiments of the present invention, but not all of the embodiments. Based on the embodiments of the present invention, all other embodiments obtained by those of ordinary skill in the art without creative efforts shall fall within the protection scope of the present invention.

In order to make the above objects, features and advantages of the present invention more clearly understood, the present invention will be described in further detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings and specific embodiments.

FIG. 1 is a schematic structural diagram of a large field of view integrated microscopic imaging device based on a metalens array according to the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1 , the large field of view integrated microscopic imaging device based on the metalens array of the present invention includes: a light source 1 , a metalens array 2 , a linear polarizer 3 and an image sensor 5 .

The linear polarizer 3 is fixed behind the light source 1, and the linear polarizer 3 is located on the outgoing light path of the light source 1; the metal lens array 2 is fixed behind the linear polarizer 3, And the meta-lens array 2 is located on the outgoing light path of the linear polarizer 3; the object to be imaged 6 is located between the linear polarizer 3 and the meta-lens array 2; the image sensor 5 is located in the The rear of metal lens array 2. The metal lens array 2 and the image sensor 5 are directly integrated together to form a large field of view microscopic imaging system, which can be integrated by, for example, external glue mounting, clamping and fixing, tape-out packaging, and the like. Metal lens array 2 is a nested metal lens array, which eliminates the blind spot of the field of view in a single lens array by switching polarization, breaks the limitation of the imaging space bandwidth product, and expands the imaging field of view without sacrificing resolution and increasing working distance. , to achieve large field of view, high-resolution imaging without mechanical movement.

The meta-lens array 2 includes a plurality of meta-lenses arranged periodically, and the phase distribution of each meta-lens in the first polarized light and the second polarized light satisfies:

in,

is the phase of metalens p in the first polarized light, λ _{p1 is the wavelength of metalens} p in the first polarized light, f p1 is the focal length of metalens p in the first polarized light, and metalens p is in the first polarized light The center coordinate of polarized light is (0,0), and (x,y) is the in-plane coordinate of metalens p;

_{is the phase of the metalens} p in the second polarized light; λ _{p2 is the wavelength of the metalens} p in the second polarized light, f p2 is the focal length of the metalens p in the second polarized light, (a, b) represents the superstructure The relative offset position between the center of the structuring lens p under the second polarized light and the center of the metalens p under the first polarized light.

In order to adjust the state of polarized light more abundantly, the large field of view integrated microscopic imaging device based on the metalens array of the present invention further comprises a quarter-wave plate 4, and the quarter-wave plate 4 is fixed on the line The rear side of the polarizer 3 is located between the linear polarizer 3 and the meta-lens array 2 . By adjusting the spatial relationship between the optical axis of the quarter-wave plate 4 and the polarization direction of the linear polarizer 3 , the polarization state of the light emitted from the quarter-wave plate 4 can be adjusted. The polarization states of the outgoing light include: linearly polarized light, elliptically polarized light and circularly polarized light. Specifically, when the optical axis of the quarter-wave plate 4 is oriented as follows: the e-axis or the o-axis is consistent with the polarization direction of the linear polarizer 3, the outgoing polarized light is linearly polarized light; when the quarter-wave plate 4 The orientation of the optical axis is: when the e-axis or the o-axis is at an angle of 45 degrees to the polarization direction of the linear polarizer 3, the polarized light emitted is circularly polarized light; when the optical axis of the quarter-wave plate 4 is oriented at other angles , the outgoing polarized light is elliptically polarized light.

The geometric shapes of the metalens in the metalens array 2 described in the present invention may be circles, ellipses or polygons. The periodic arrangement of the metal lenses in the metal lens array 2 may be a tetragonal lattice arrangement or a hexagonal lattice arrangement. Moreover, the arrangement period of the lenses of the metal lens array 2 when the first polarized light is incident may be the same as or different from the arrangement period of the lenses of the metal lens array 2 when the second polarized light is incident. As shown in Figure 2, part (a) in Figure 2 is a tetragonal lattice arrangement period, part (b) in Figure 2 is a hexagonal lattice arrangement period, and part (c) in Figure 2 is a hexagonal lattice The arrangement period of the metal lens array is different when the two polarized lights are incident.

In order to better understand the solution of the present invention, further description is given below in conjunction with specific embodiments.

Example 1

3 is a schematic diagram of the lens array of the meta-lens array of Embodiment 1 when two polarized lights are incident. As shown in part (a) of FIG. 3 , in this embodiment, the meta-lens array is a 2×2 meta-lens Array, the lens A array is formed when the polarization 1 (left-hand circularly polarized light) is incident, as shown in part (b) of FIG. 3 , the lens B array is formed when the polarization 2 (right-hand circularly polarized light) is incident. In the present embodiment, the metal lens adopts a square geometric shape, and its focal length and design wavelength are both f and λ, then the phase distribution of each metal lens under two polarizations is specifically:

Where D is the side length of the lens, the actual processing is set to 200μm, and the working wavelength λ is 630nm.

In order to verify the accuracy and feasibility of the design in Example 1, the performance of the designed polarization multiplexing metalens array is first evaluated by using simulation software. Because commercial simulation software (Lumerical FDTD Solutions) requires large computing resources and long computing time to simulate large-aperture metalens arrays, the numerical aperture of the polarization multiplexing metalens is guaranteed to remain unchanged during the actual simulation, and the diameter of the lens is reduced. Therefore, the final simulation parameters are set as the diameter of the polarization multiplexing metalens is 10.0 μm and the focal length is 12.5 m. The simulation results are shown in FIG. 4 , and part (a) in FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of the arrangement of the xy-plane structure of the metal lens array. Part (b) in Figure 4 is the normalized electric field intensity distribution of the left-handed circularly polarized incident light (the upper image) and the right-handed circularly polarized incident light (the lower image) of the metal lens array focal plane. It can be clearly seen that the left-handed circular The focal spot of 4 lenses when polarized light is incident and the focal spot of 1 complete lens when right-handed circularly polarized light is incident, the focal spot of 4 1/2 lenses on the side and the focal spot of 4 1/4 lenses on the corner spot, and the crosstalk between the two polarized metalens is small. Part (c) in Fig. 4 is the electric field normalized between the left-handed circularly polarized incident light (top) and right-handed circularly polarized incident light (bottom) polarization multiplexing metalens array focal plane and the orthogonal polarization components of the incident light Intensity distribution diagram, it can be seen that after the analysis is performed, the signal-to-noise ratio of the lens focusing is higher.

Example 2

In this embodiment, electron beam exposure and dry etching are used to obtain a metal lens array. Figure 5 shows the optical microscope photo corresponding to the 6×6 metalens array, in which the side length of a single polarization multiplexing lens is 200 μm, the focal length of the lenses corresponding to the two polarizations is 250 μm, and the working wavelength is 630 nm. The lens array is integrated into the image sensor according to the method of the present invention, and the US Air Force target is imaged as an imaging object, and the imaging diagrams of the left-handed circularly polarized incident light and the right-handed circularly polarized incident light are collected by switching the polarization as shown in Figure 6 ( shown in part a) and part (b) in FIG. 6 . Through subsequent image stitching, a full field of view image can be finally obtained, as shown in part (c) of Figure 6, where the resolution is comparable to that of a single lens (≈1.74 μm), and the field of view is 36 times larger than that of a single lens.

Some biological samples are imaged with the large field of view integrated microscopic imaging technology based on metalens arrays shown in the present invention. The comparison between the optical microscope photo of the biological sample and the photomicrograph obtained by the imaging technology of the present invention is shown in Figure 7, which are the cervical cells in the Pap smear (part (a) in Figure 7) and the fly wing sample ( Fig. 7(b)), tongue longitudinal section specimen (Fig. 7(c)) and myocardial longitudinal section (Fig. 7(d)), Fig. 7(a) , Part (b) in Figure 7, Part (c) in Figure 7 and Part (d) in Figure 7, the left image is an optical microscope photo, and the right image is a large field of view micrograph obtained by the present invention . It can be seen that, compared with the optical microscope photos of the same field of view, the microscopic images obtained by the large field of view integrated microscopic imaging technology based on the metalens array shown in the present invention have good contrast and clear details.

The various embodiments in this specification are described in a progressive manner, and each embodiment focuses on the differences from other embodiments, and the same and similar parts between the various embodiments can be referred to each other.

The principles and implementations of the present invention are described herein using specific examples. The descriptions of the above embodiments are only used to help understand the method and the core idea of the present invention; meanwhile, for those skilled in the art, according to the present invention There will be changes in the specific implementation and application scope. In conclusion, the contents of this specification should not be construed as limiting the present invention.

Claims (7)

1. A large field of view integrated microscopic imaging device based on a metalens array, characterized in that it comprises: a light source, a metalens array, a linear polarizer and an image sensor;

   The linear polarizer is fixed behind the light source, and the linear polarizer is located on the outgoing light path of the light source; the metalens array is fixed behind the linear polarizer, and the metalens is The array is located on the outgoing light path of the linear polarizer; the object to be imaged is located between the linear polarizer and the metal lens array; the image sensor is located behind the metal lens array;

   The meta-lens array includes a plurality of meta-lenses arranged periodically, and the phase distribution of the meta-lenses in the first polarized light and the second polarized light satisfies:

   

   in,

   

   is the phase of metalens p in the first polarized light, λ _{p1 is the wavelength of metalens} p in the first polarized light, f p1 is the focal length of metalens p in the first polarized light, and metalens p is in the first polarized light The center coordinate of polarized light is ( ⁰ _, ⁰ ), and (x, y) is the in-plane coordinate of metalens p;

   

   _{is the phase of the metalens} p in the second polarized light; λ _{p2 is the wavelength of the metalens} p in the second polarized light, f p2 is the focal length of the metalens p in the second polarized light, (a, b) represents the superstructure The relative offset position between the center of the structuring lens p under the second polarized light and the center of the metalens p under the first polarized light.
2. The large field of view integrated microscopic imaging device based on metalens array according to claim 1, further comprising: a quarter-wave plate; the quarter-wave plate is fixed to the linear polarization behind the plate and between the linear polarizer and the metalens array.
3. The large field of view integrated microscopic imaging device based on metalens array according to claim 2, characterized in that, by adjusting the spatial relationship between the optical axis of the quarter-wave plate and the polarization direction of the linear polarizer to adjust the polarization state of the outgoing light from the quarter-wave plate; the polarization states of the outgoing light include: linearly polarized light, elliptically polarized light and circularly polarized light.
4. The large field-of-view integrated microscopic imaging device based on a metalens array according to claim 1, wherein the periodic arrangement of the metalens in the metalens array comprises: a square lattice arrangement and a hexagonal arrangement. Lattice arrangement.
5. The large field of view integrated microscopic imaging device based on metalens array according to claim 1, wherein the arrangement period of the lenses in the first lens array is the same as the arrangement period of the lenses in the second lens array; The first lens array is the lens array of the meta-lens array when the first polarized light is incident, and the second lens array is the lens array of the meta-lens array when the second polarized light is incident .
6. The large field-of-view integrated microscopic imaging device based on the metal lens array according to claim 1, wherein the arrangement period of the lenses in the first lens array is different from the arrangement period of the lenses in the second lens array; The first lens array is the lens array of the meta-lens array when the first polarized light is incident, and the second lens array is the lens array of the meta-lens array when the second polarized light is incident .
7. The large field-of-view integrated microscopic imaging device based on the metalens array according to claim 1, wherein the geometrical shapes of the metalens in the metalens array include circles, ellipses and polygons.

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