To realise the vision of Industry 4.0 and create smart, autonomous manufacturing, metrology needs to be in situ within key manufacturing processes, ideally delivering in-line and in-process measurements. Currently, most sensors are too big and bulky for integration alongside most manufacturing processes. This is due to the size of the components, as most optical elements require curved glass, which is heavy and takes up space. Metasurfaces, arrays of nanostructures arranged to manipulate an incident wavefront, can be used to replace glass components and make systems smaller and lighter. As well as being small, these elements can be designed to perform multiple functions at once, reducing the number of components within a system. For example, spectrometers are usually bulky optical systems which require many optical elements to diffract and focus light, however, a metasurface spectrometer could be designed in a fraction of the size. The single-shot dispersive profile interferometer (SDPI) is a sensor which allows for the measurement of the height along a line profile. This quick and effective technique can be used for roll-to-roll manufacturing, however its spectrometer takes up a significant amount of space due to the large and heavy components it utilises. This thesis is focused on the design of a metasurface spectrometer which would replace the current spectrometer found within this instrument. This is ideal as smaller, lighter, instrumentation could be integrated in scenarios where its current form would be prohibitive, improving manufacturing processes. Several metasurface spectrometer designs have been investigated in this thesis, developing towards a spectrometer in a form that can be implemented in the SDPI.
| Date of Award | 20 May 2026 |
|---|
| Original language | English |
|---|
| Sponsors | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council |
|---|
| Supervisor | Jane Jiang (Main Supervisor) & Andrew Henning (Co-Supervisor) |
|---|