Development of an Efficient Metalens Design and Optimization Package

As device designs become more complex and incorporate new, advanced technologies and materials, accurate simulations of multi-physics phenomenology become critical to ensuring that such design and analysis efforts are successful. The diversity of problems of interest to the Department of Energy (DOE) and wider audiences includes examples such as metamaterials, nanostructures, and innovative next-generation optical surfaces. Developing advanced computational physics solvers, particular multi-physics and large-scale computational electromagnetic (CEM) software, is critical to solving these challenges in an accurate and timely manner. These advanced capabilities must also be augmented with modern high-performance computing (HPC) enabled software, all while improving user accessibility. MFEM, part of DOE-funded ASCR, is a modular finite element (FE) programming framework developed for a unique audience of expert-level scientists and engineers with programming background. To expand the accessibility of this great DOE resource, this project focuses on leveraging MFEM to develop a new metasurface design module for our existing VMP CEM software. The goal is to enable scientists and engineers without computational programming expertise the opportunity to leverage MFEM in a user-friendly capacity for the purpose of simulating nanoscale optical structures. Overall, this combination of technologies will make HPC-enabled simulations more accessible to non-expert users and democratize EM and multi-physics simulation capability all while increasing addressable problem size through HPC use. In this work, we will leverage MFEM and other DOE-funded libraries, including Hypre and PETSc, to implement CEM algorithms suitable for modeling nanostructured metalens surfaces. The algorithms will be refined and hybridized to produce an accurate and fast method for designing optical structures of this form. The resulting prototype software will be thoroughly tested and validated in preparation for integrating a commercial-grade package in Phase II. This package will be integrated as a module of IERUSĺs VMP software package and will fill in the largest remaining gap in our CEM simulation software portfolio. Metalenses are a revolutionary new form of optical devices that can match the optical performance of large lens assemblies while offering a dramatic reduction in size and weight. The major roadblock preventing a large-scale rollout of metalenses in a vast array of applications is the ability to quickly and accurately design metalens structures for specific applications. This work will complement IERUSĺs existing CEM simulation portfolio and provide a unique design tool for a rapidly developing commercial optical design market.