Optoelectronic imaging systems are rapidly evolving toward extreme miniaturization and expanded functionality, driven by demands in fields such as autonomous navigation, portable medical diagnostics, and drone inspection. However, traditional refractive optics rely on cascaded lens groups and microlens arrays, which impose fundamental physical barriers to this miniaturization trend due to their large spatial footprint. Metasurfaces offer a transformative planar alternative by providing nanoscale control over the phase, amplitude, and polarization of incident light. By eliminating the reliance on spatial phase accumulation, these subwavelength arrays present a critical pathway to overcoming the spatial limitations of conventional imaging modules.

A research team led by Prof. Boxiang Song and Prof. Jiang Tang at Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST) is driving the shift toward fully integrated sensing architectures. Combining Prof. Song’s focus on foundry-compatible monolithic metamaterials with Prof. Tang’s expertise in advanced optoelectronic materials, the researchers outline how metasurfaces merge with photodetectors via free-space placement, hybrid adhesive mounting, and direct monolithic fabrication. They highlight monolithic architectures as the ultimate integration frontier. Fabricating metasurfaces directly onto diverse active materials places resonant nanostructures directly in the near-field of the photoelectric depletion region. This subwavelength proximity actively breaks intrinsic absorption limits and converts multi-parameter optical data into electrical signals, enabling true single-shot, multi-dimensional perception. The work entitled “Integration of metasurface with photodetectors and image sensors: towards ultra-compact, multi-functional and on-chip optoelectronic imaging systems” was published on Frontiers of Optoelectronics (published on June 18, 2026).
DOI: 10.2738/foe.2026.0036