Researchers have created the first ultrathin, flat lens able to focus light just as well as its curved counterparts, potentially enabling big breakthroughs in camera and microscope technology.
"These flat lenses will help us to make more-compact and robust imaging assemblies," Mahmood Bagheri, a microdevices engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, said in a statement.
The silicon nanopillars — so-called because they'd look like tall columns to anything smaller than a nanometer (one one-billionth of a meter) — are arranged in a honeycomb pattern. This creates "metasurfaces" that can control the paths and properties of passing light waves via electromagnetic features.
Doing all of this shouldn't break the bank, either, researchers added.
"Currently, optical systems are made one component at a time, and the components are often manually assembled," Andrei Faraon, an assistant professor of applied physics and materials science at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena, said in the same statement. "But this new technology is very similar to the one used to print semiconductor chips onto silicon wafers, so you could conceivably manufacture millions of systems, such as microscopes or cameras, at a time."
Follow Kasandra Brabaw on Twitter @KassieBrabaw. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Originally published on Space.com.