If you have ever dabbled in photography, you may have come across the thought of capturing a panoramic view in a single shot. Often photographers will use a fish-eyed lens made from multiple pieces of curved glass. However, these lens are bulk and costly to produce.
What is a fisheye lens? Watch the video below to learn more!
To address this challenge, engineers at MIT and the University of Massachusetts have developed a fisheye lens that’s completely flat.
"This design comes as somewhat of a surprise, because some have thought it would be impossible to make a metalens with an ultra-wide-field view," says Juejun Hu, associate professor in MIT's Department of Materials Science and Engineering. "The fact that this can actually realize fisheye images is completely outside expectation.
The lens work by altering light through the infrared part of the spectrum.
'We've designed the backside structures in such a way that each part can produce a perfect focus," Hu says.
"When light comes in through this aperture, it will refract at the first surface of the glass, and then will get angularly dispersed," Shalaginov explains. "The light will then hit different parts of the backside, from different and yet continuous angles. As long as you design the back side properly, you can be sure to achieve high-quality imaging across the entire panoramic view."
Source: Science Daily
