title: Design and fabrication of random phase diffusers for extending the depth of focus.
abstract: We present a method for designing non-absorbing optical diffusers that, when illuminated by a converging beam, produce a specified intensity distribution along the optical axis. To evaluate the performance of the diffusers in imaging systems we calculate the three-dimensional distribution of the mean intensity in the neighborhood of focus. We find that the diffusers can be used as depth-of-focus extenders. We also propose and implement a method of fabricating the designed diffusers on photoresist-coated plates and present some experimental results obtained with the fabricated diffusers.
authors.forename: E E
authors.initials: EE
authors.lastname: García-Guerrero
authors.forename: Eugenio R
authors.initials: ER
authors.lastname: Méndez
authors.forename: Héctor M
authors.initials: HM
authors.lastname: Escamilla
authors.forename: Tamara A
authors.initials: TA
authors.lastname: Leskova
authors.forename: Alexei A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Maradudin