Large-aperture fast multilevel Fresnel zone lenses in glass and ultrathin polymer films for visible and near-infrared imaging applications.
The ability to fabricate 4-level diffractive structures with 1 µm critical dimensions has been demonstrated for the creation of fast (∼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  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.
Jerald A
JA
Britten
Shamusundar N
SN
Dixit
Michael
M
DeBruyckere
Daniel
D
Steadfast
James
J
Hackett
Brandon
B
Farmer
Garrett
G
Poe
Brian
B
Patrick
Paul D
PD
Atcheson
Jeanette L
JL
Domber
Aaron
A
Seltzer