Fast design and fabrication of patient-specific metasurfaces toward intraocular lens applications

Abstract

Multifocal intraocular lenses (IOLs) provide functional vision at multiple distances, yet clinical satisfaction is strongly influenced by patient-specific through-focus preferences among near, intermediate, and far vision, which are rarely encoded as a first-class design variable in conventional diffractive optics. Here, we report a preliminary design-to-fabrication investigation of patient-specific flat metasurface prototypes for prospective IOL applications. A scalar wave-optics model maps a low-dimensional focus preference profile into a two-dimensional phase distribution on a 500 nm lattice over a 3 mm pupil using an area-fraction tri-focal construction. Four representative cataract-patient preference profiles are investigated: near-dominant, intermediate-dominant, far-dominant, and balanced. The continuous phase profile is discretized into a polarization-insensitive nanopillar library, enabling UV nanoimprint-based replication using a reusable soft mold and a high-index TiO2-polymer composite. Benchtop point spread function measurements of the fabricated flat metasurface prototypes reproduce the predicted preference-dependent redistribution of optical energy across near, intermediate, and far focal planes. These results establish the optical and manufacturing feasibility of fast, preference-tailored flat metasurfaces as a preliminary step toward future IOL applications. However, the present work addresses planar two-dimensional metasurface patterns rather than curved three-dimensional implantable lenses. Further studies are required to integrate such metasurfaces with realistic IOL geometries, evaluate performance in eye models and clinically relevant visual tasks such as reading, computer work, and driving, and assess biocompatibility, sterilization, long-term stability, and surgical handling.