Abstract
Metasurfaces are planarized and miniaturized versions of conventional optical elements. Subwavelength‐thick single‐layer metalenses have diffraction limited resolution for on‐axis imaging but relatively low resolution for off‐axis imaging due to off‐axial aberrations. The aberrations of planar single‐layer metalenses have been corrected by patterning two metasurfaces on both sides of a substrate to form metalens doublets with a thickness of hundreds of micrometers to millimeters. The multilevel diffractive lenses are demonstrated to achieve wide angle imaging with a thickness of several micrometers, however, the off‐axial aberrations are not compensated. Here, an epsilon‐greedy algorithm‐based scheme for achieving a planar wavelength‐thick single‐layer aberration‐compensated (SLAC) flat lens consisting of dielectric nanoring structures fabricated by 3D printing are proposed. The scheme is experimentally validated via a SLAC flat lens. This SLAC flat lens has a thickness of 1 µm, a numerical aperture of 0.45, a focal length of 1 mm, a full field of view (FOV) of 32° that enables aberration‐compensated imaging along the focal plane and monochromatic microscopic imaging with resolution better than 2.2 µm at a wavelength of 633 nm. This scheme can lead to ultrathin wide‐FOV flat lens designs as well as low‐cost mass production, which has various applications in miniscopes, mobile camera modules, and machine vision. The planar wavelength‐thick single‐layer aberration‐compensated (SLAC) flat lenses enabled by an epsilon‐greedy algorithm‐based scheme are proposed and demonstrated to achieve both photographic and microscopic aberration‐compensated imaging. This scheme can lead to ultrathin wide‐FOV flat lens designs as well as low‐cost mass production. In addition, the compact SLAC flat lens design has various applications in miniscopes, mobile camera modules, and machine vision.