Abstract

The ability to fabricate 4-level diffractive structures with 1 µm critical dimensions has been demonstrated for the creation of fast ($\sim \mathrm{f}/3.1$ at 633 nm) Fresnel zone lenses (FZLs) with $>60\%$ diffraction efficiency into the $-1$ focusing order and nearly complete suppression of 0 and $+1$ orders. This is done using tooling capable of producing optics with 800 mm apertures. A 4-level grating fabricated in glass at 300 mm aperture is shown to have $<15\mathrm{nm}$ rms holographic phase error. Glass FZLs have also been used as mandrels for casting zero-thermal-expansion, 20 µm thick polymer films created with the 4-level structure as a route to mass replication of efficient diffractive membranes for ultralight segmented space-based telescope applications.

Fabrication of large-aperture lightweight diffractive lenses for use in space

Ian M. Barton, Jerald A. Britten, Shamasundar N. Dixit, Leslie J. Summers, Ian M. Thomas, Michael C. Rushford, Katy Lu, Roderick A. Hyde, and Michael D. Perry
Appl. Opt. 40(4) 447-451 (2001)

Quasi-achromatic Fresnel zone lens with ring focus

A. Vijayakumar and Shanti Bhattacharya
Appl. Opt. 53(9) 1970-1974 (2014)

Characterization and correction of spherical aberration due to glass substrate in the design and fabrication of Fresnel zone lenses

A. Vijayakumar and S. Bhattacharya
Appl. Opt. 52(24) 5932-5940 (2013)

Large aperture high diffraction efficiency off-axis Fresnel lens fabrication and analysis

Guohan Gao, Heng Shi, Lihua Wang, Dun Liu, Jiong Wang, Junfeng Du, Jiang Bian, Bin Fan, and Hu Yang
Opt. Express 30(16) 28932-28940 (2022)

Liquid crystal Fresnel zone lens based on single-side-patterned photoalignment layer

X. Q. Wang, F. Fan, T. Du, A. M. W. Tam, Y. Ma, A. K. Srivastava, V. G. Chigrinov, and H. S. Kwok
Appl. Opt. 53(10) 2026-2029 (2014)