Technology Showcase

Numerical aperture (NA) determines the resolution of a lens – how tightly light can be focused and the maximum collection angle from a point source at its focus. The higher the NA, the higher the resolution of a lens. The theoretical maximum NA in air is 1. Traditional large-NA lens based on refractive optics are bulky and expensive, achieving up to NA of 0.9. With a single thin layer of flat lens, we have demonstrated NA > 0.99.