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2026

Hybrid Refractive–Metalens Zoom System

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The Tong Yang team at Beijing Institute of Technology has proposed a hybrid refractive–metasurface zoom system that achieves focal‑length tuning through rotational modulation of cascaded freeform metasurfaces, rather than by translating optical elements. The authors’ architecture combines the high imaging performance of refractive optics with the wavefront‑engineering flexibility of metasurfaces, enabling continuous zoom within a significantly reduced system footprint. To realize such hybrid systems, they developed a co‑design strategy based on physical ray tracing and a multi‑configuration optimization framework that suppresses parasitic zeroth‑order diffraction while maintaining imaging quality across the entire zoom range. The fabricated prototype demonstrates continuous 2× zoom operation, with stable aberration control and low distortion; experimental measurements agree well with theoretical predictions. These results validate the proposed hybrid refractive–metasurface architecture for compact, translation‑free zoom imaging, along with its accompanying system‑level co‑design methodology, providing a practical framework for future hybrid refractive–metasurface optical systems in applications such as infrared sensing, augmented/virtual reality, aerospace instrumentation, compact cameras, and portable smart devices.

The research findings were published in Optica on August 18, 2026, under the title “Compact infrared varifocal optics enabled by hybrid refractive lenses and freeform cascade metalenses.”