This PDF file contains the front matter associated with SPIE Proceedings Volume 9192 including the Title Page, Copyright information, Table of Contents, Introduction, and the Conference Committee listing.

The present research is part of an effort to develop tools that make the lens design process more systematic. In typical optical design tasks, the presence of many local minima in the optical merit function landscape makes design non-trivial. With the method of Saddle Point Construction (SPC) which was developed recently ([F. Bociort and M. van Turnhout, Opt. Engineering 48, 063001 (2009)]) new local minima are obtained efficiently from known ones by adding and removing lenses in a systematic way. To illustrate how SPC and special properties of the lens design landscape can be used, we will present the step-by-step design of a wide-angle pinhole lens and the automatic design of a 9-lens system which, after further development with traditional techniques, is capable of good performance. We also give an example that shows how to visualize the saddle point that can be constructed at any surface of any design of an imaging system that is a local minimum.

In this work, we present a novel imaging design formed by two optical surfaces with rotational symmetry. In these designs, both object and image shapes are given but mapping from object to image is obtained through the design process. In the examples considered, the image from a planar object surface is virtual and located at infinity and is seen from a known pupil, which can emulate a human eye. The differential equation method is used to provide single optical surface imaging designs by considering the local properties of the imaging surface and the wavefronts. In the first introductory part, both the rotational symmetrical and the freeform single surface imaging designs are presented using the differential equation method. In these designs, not only the mapping is obtained in the design process, but also the shape of the object is found. In the second part, the method is extended to two surface designs with rotational symmetry and the astigmatism of the image has been studied. By adding one more optical surface to the system, the shape of the rotational symmetrical object can be designed while controlling the tangential rays and sagittal rays simultaneously. As a result, designs without astigmatism (at the small pupil limit) on a planar object surface have been obtained.

Tunable lenses are optical systems that have attracted much attention due to their potential applications in such areas like ophthalmology, machine vision, microscopy and laser processing. In recent years we have been working in the analysis and performance of a liquid-filled variable focal length lens, this is a lens that can modify its focal length by changing the amount of water within it. Nowadays we extend our study to a particular adaptive lens known as solid elastic lens (SEL) that it is formed by an elastic main body made of Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS Sylgard 184). In this work, we present the design, simulation and analysis of an adaptive solid elastic lens that in principle imitates the accommodation process of the crystalline lens in the human eye. For this work, we have adopted the parameters of the schematic eye model developed in 1985 by Navarro et al.; this model represents the anatomy of the eye as close as possible to reality by predicting an acceptable and accurate quantity of spherical and chromatic aberrations without any shape fitting. An opto-mechanical analysis of the accommodation process of the adaptive lens is presented, by simulating a certain amount of radial force applied onto the SEL using the finite element method with the commercial software SolidWorks®. We also present ray-trace diagrams of the simulated compression process of the adaptive lens using the commercial software OSLO®.

We study the formation of caustic produced by smooth arbitrary surfaces considering a plane wavefront propagating parallel to the optical axis and impinging on the refracting surface. We have already seen that the shape of the caustic surface can represent the monochromatic aberrations that we call image errors, furthermore the shape of the caustic can be modified by changing the parameters of the lens in such a way that if the caustic surfaces is vanished the optical system produces a perfect image, on the other hand for a caustic possessing a large area it could be applied to design no-imaging optical systems. The shape of the caustic depends only on the indices of refraction involved in the process of refraction, the refracting surface which is formed by smooth arbitrary plano-convex lens. We provide an analytic equation for the caustic surface after refraction of a plane wave from every rotationally symmetric surface..

We describe the application of wavefront coding technique for infrared imaging system to control thermal defocus. For traditional infrared imaging system, athermalization is necessary to maintain imaging performance which may increase complexity and cost of the imaging system. Wavefront coding includes a phase mask at the pupil which can re-modulate wave front so as to produce an encoded image. After digital processing, the system is insensitive to defocus. In this paper, the combination of wavefront coding technique and infrared imaging system has been discussed. We report here the optic design of the wavefront coding IR system based on Zemax. The phase mask is designed to ensure that the modulation transfer function (MTF) is approximately invariant in the range of working temperature. Meanwhile, we designed three IR systems to put up contrast experiments. System one and two are designed to compare the influence before and after the insertion of phase mask. System three is designed to compare the imaging performance before and after reducing lens in wavefront coding IR system. The simulation results show that the infrared imaging system based on wavefront coding can control thermal defocus in a temperature varying from -60ºC to 60 ºC, at the same time the weight and cost of optical elements are reduced by approximately 40%.

We study the imaging properties of windows that rotate the direction of transmitted light rays by a fixed angle around the window normal [A. C. Hamilton et al., J. Opt. A: Pure Appl. Opt. 11,085705 (2009)]. We previously found that such windows image between object and image positions with suitably defined complex longitudinal coordinates [J. Courtial et al., Opt. Lett. 37, 701 (2012)]. Here we extend this work to object and image positions in which any coordinate can be complex. This is possible by generalising our definition of what it means for alight ray to pass through a complex position: the vector from the real part of the position to the point on the ray that is closest to that real part of the position must equal the cross product of the imaginary part of the image position and the normalised light-ray-direction vector. In the paraxial limit, we derive the equivalent of the lens equation for planar and spherical ray-rotating windows. These results allow us to describe complex imaging in more general situations, involving combinations of lenses and inclined ray-rotating windows. We illustrate our results with ray-tracing simulations.

Camera calibration is essential for any optical system used to obtain 3D measurements from images. The precision of the 3D depth estimation relies on an appropriate camera model and the accurate estimation of model parameters. These parameters are sensitive to environmental conditions and it is well established that a vision system should be calibrated in operating conditions. This is not always possible since the calibration process is often tedious and time-consuming. Unfortunately, the use of poorly estimated calibration parameters for 3D reconstruction and measurements may lead to suboptimal performance of the system and inaccurate depth estimation. This paper presents a technique using an existing camera model and optical design software to perform calibration simulations. This virtual calibration technique allows for a study of the impact of environmental conditions on the calibration parameters. Using this procedure, it is also possible to predict the statistical behavior of the calibration parameters considering the chosen fabrication processes and tolerances. It can assist vision scientists in the choice of the optical system that best meets the requested precision of the 3D reconstruction. This technique could eventually be integrated in the lens design process to create more reliable optical systems that could be calibrated and used in a range of environmental conditions with a very small variation of their calibration parameters.

As telescopes become larger and adaptive optics systems become more capable, integral field spectrographs offer a range of advantages over traditional cameras and spectrographs for many applications. I’ll specifically discuss the design and benefits of lenslet-based integral field spectrographs with examples from the OSIRIS instrument at Keck, the Gemini Planet Imager IFS and the IRIS instrument for the planned Thirty Meter Telescope. All three of these spectrographs are fully cryogenic with minimal wavefront error, high throughput and relatively large fields of view (in terms of the number of spatial elements).

Today huge efforts are made in the research and industrial areas to design compact and cheap uncooled infrared optical systems for low-cost imagery applications. Indeed, infrared cameras are currently too expensive to be widespread. If we manage to cut their cost, we expect to open new types of markets. In this paper, we will present the cheap broadband microimager we have designed. It operates in the long-wavelength infrared range and uses only one silicon lens at a minimal cost for the manufacturing process. Our concept is based on the use of a thin optics. Therefore inexpensive unconventional materials can be used because some absorption can be tolerated. Our imager uses a thin Fresnel lens. Up to now, Fresnel lenses have not been used for broadband imagery applications because of their disastrous chromatic properties. However, we show that working in a high diffraction order can significantly reduce chromatism. A prototype has been made and the performance of our camera will be discussed. Its characterization has been carried out in terms of modulation transfer function (MTF) and noise equivalent temperature difference (NETD). Finally, experimental images will be presented.

Modern applications in biomedical imaging, machine vision and security engineering require close-up optical systems with high resolution. Combined with the need for miniaturization and fast image acquisition of extended object fields, the design and fabrication of respective devices is extremely challenging. Standard commercial imaging solutions rely on bulky setups or depend on scanning techniques in order to meet the stringent requirements. Recently, our group has proposed a novel, multi-aperture approach based on parallel image transfer in order to overcome these constraints. It exploits state of the art microoptical manufacturing techniques on wafer level in order to create a compact, cost-effective system with a large field of view. However, initial prototypes have so far been subject to various limitations regarding their manufacturing, reliability and applicability. In this work, we demonstrate the optical design and fabrication of an advanced system, which overcomes these restrictions. In particular, a revised optical design facilitates a more efficient and economical fabrication process and inherently improves system reliability. An additional customized front side illumination module provides homogeneous white light illumination over the entire field of view while maintaining a high degree of compactness. Moreover, the complete imaging assembly is mounted on a positioning system. In combination with an extended working range, this allows for adjustment of the system’s focus location. The final optical design is capable of capturing an object field of 36x24 mm² with a resolution of 150 cycles/mm. Finally, we present experimental results of the respective prototype that demonstrate its enhanced capabilities.

Adding an array of microlenses in front of the sensor transforms the capabilities of a conventional camera to capture both spatial and angular information within a single shot. This plenoptic camera is capable of obtaining depth information and providing it for a multitude of applications, e.g. artificial re-focusing of photographs. Without the need of active illumination it represents a compact and fast optical 3D acquisition technique with reduced effort in system alignment. Since the extent of the aperture limits the range of detected angles, the observed parallax is reduced compared to common stereo imaging systems, which results in a decreased depth resolution. Besides, the gain of angular information implies a degraded spatial resolution. This trade-off requires a careful choice of the optical system parameters. We present a comprehensive assessment of possible degrees of freedom in the design of plenoptic systems. Utilizing a custom-built simulation tool, the optical performance is quantified with respect to particular starting conditions. Furthermore, a plenoptic camera prototype is demonstrated in order to verify the predicted optical characteristics.

Refocusing multi-channel imaging systems are nowadays commercially available only in bulky and expensive designs. Compact wafer-level multi-channel imaging systems have until now only been published without refocusing mechanisms, since classical refocusing concepts could not be integrated in a miniaturized configuration. This lack of refocusing capabilities limits the depth-of-field of these imaging designs and therefore their application in practical systems. We designed and characterized a wafer-level two-channel multi-resolution refocusing imaging system, based on an electrically tunable liquid lens and a design that can be realized with wafer-level mass-manufacturing techniques. One wide field-of-view channel (2x40°) gives a general image of the surroundings with a lower angular resolution (0.078°), whereas the high angular resolution channel (0.0098°) provides a detailed image of a small region of interest with a much narrower field-of-view (2x7.57°). The latter high resolution imaging channel contains the tunable lens and therefore the refocusing capability. The performances of this high resolution imaging channel were experimentally characterized in a proof-of-concept demonstrator. The experimental and simulated depth-of-field and resolving power correspond well. Moreover, we are able to obtain a depth-of-field from 0.25m until infinity, which is a significant improvement of the current state-of-the-art static multi-channel imaging systems, which show a depth-of-field from 9m until infinity. Both the high resolution and wide field-of-view imaging channels show a diffraction-limited image quality. The designed wafer-level two-channel imaging system can form the basis of an advanced three-dimensional stacked image sensor, where different image processing algorithms can be simultaneously applied to the different images on the image sensor.

In 2014, miniature camera modules are applied to a variety of applications such as webcam, mobile phone, automotive, endoscope, tablets, portable computers and many other products. Mobile phone cameras are probably one of the most challenging parts due to the need for smaller and smaller total track length (TTL) and optimized embedded image processing algorithms. As the technology is developing, higher resolution and higher image quality, new capabilities are required to fulfil the market needs. Consequently, the lens system becomes more complex and requires more optical elements and/or new optical elements. What is the limit? How small an injection molded lens can be? We will discuss those questions by comparing two wide angle lenses for consumer electronic market. The first lens is a 6.56 mm (TTL) panoramic (180° FOV) lens built in 2012. The second is a more recent (2014) panoramic lens (180° FOV) with a TTL of 3.80 mm for mobile phone camera. Both optics are panomorph lenses used with megapixel sensors. Between 2012 and 2014, the development in design and plastic injection molding allowed a reduction of the TTL by more than 40%. This TTL reduction has been achieved by pushing the lens design to the extreme (edge/central air and material thicknesses as well as lens shape). This was also possible due to a better control of the injection molding process and material (low birefringence, haze and thermal stability). These aspects will be presented and discussed. During the next few years, we don’t know if new material will come or new process but we will still need innovative people and industries to push again the limits.

The diffraction gratings are widely used in Space-flight satellites for spectrograph instruments or in ground-based telescopes in astronomy. The diffraction gratings are one of the key optical components of such systems and have to exhibit very high optical performances. HORIBA Jobin Yvon S.A.S. (part of HORIBA Group) is in the forefront of such gratings development for more than 40 years. During the past decades, HORIBA Jobin Yvon (HJY) has developed a unique expertise in diffraction grating design and manufacturing processes for holographic, ruled or etched gratings. We will present in this paper an overview of diffraction grating technologies especially designed for space and astronomy applications. We will firstly review the heritage of the company in this field with the space qualification of different grating types. Then, we will describe several key grating technologies developed for specific space or astronomy projects: ruled blazed low groove density plane reflection grating, holographic blazed replica plane grating, high-groove density holographic toroidal and spherical grating and transmission Fused Silica Etched (FSE) grismassembled grating.

The integration of diffractive optical elements (DOE) into an optical design opens up new possibilities for applications in sensing and illumination. If the resulting optics is used in a larger spectral range we must correct not only the chromatic error of the conventional, refractive, part of the design but also of the DOE. We present a simple but effective strategy to select substrates which allow the minimum etch depths for the DOEs. The selection depends on both the refractive index and the dispersion.

Germanium is commonly used for optical components in the infrared, but the high refractive index of germanium causes significant losses due to Fresnel reflections. Anti-reflection (AR) surfaces based on subwavelength “moth’s eye” gratings provide one means to significantly increase optical transmission. As found in nature, these gratings are conformal to the curved surfaces of lenslets in the eye of the moth. Engineered optical systems inspired by biological examples offer possibilities for increased performance and system miniaturization, but also introduce significant challenges to both design and fabrication. In this paper, we consider the design and fabrication of conformal moth’s eye AR structures on germanium freeform optical surfaces, including lens arrays and Alvarez lenses. Fabrication approaches and limitations based on both lithography and multi-axis diamond machining are considered. Rigorous simulations of grating performance and approaches for simulation of conformal, multi-scale optical systems are discussed.

The head mount display for entertainment usually requires light weight. But in the professional application has more requirements. The image quality, field of view (FOV), color gamut, response and life time are considered items, too. A head mount display based on 1-chip TI DMD spatial light modulator is proposed. The multiple light sources and splitting images relay system are the major design tasks. The relay system images the object (DMD) into two image planes to crate binocular vision. The 0.65 inch 1080P DMD is adopted. The relay has a good performance which includes the doublet to reduce the chromatic aberration. Some spaces are reserved for placing the mirror and adjustable mechanism. The mirror splits the rays to the left and right image plane. These planes correspond to the eyepieces objects and image to eyes. A changeable mechanism provides the variable interpupillary distance (IPD). The folding optical path makes sure that the HMD center of gravity is close to the head and prevents the uncomfortable downward force being applied to head or orbit. Two RGB LED assemblies illuminate to the DMD in different angle. The light is highly collimated. The divergence angle is small enough such that one LED ray would only enters to the correct eyepiece. This switching is electronic controlled. There is no moving part to produce vibration and fast switch would be possible. Two LED synchronize with 3D video sync by a driving board which also controls the DMD. When the left eye image is displayed on DMD, the LED for left optical path turns on. Vice versa for right image and 3D scene is accomplished.

A conventional camera can be adapted for underwater use by enclosing it in a sealed waterproof pressure housing with a viewport. The viewport, as an optical interface between water and air needs to consider both the camera and water optical characteristics while also providing a high pressure water seal. Limited hydrospace visibility drives a need for wide angle viewports. Practical optical interfaces between seawater and air vary from simple flat plate windows to complex water contact lenses. This paper first provides a brief overview of the physical and optical properties of the ocean environment along with suitable optical materials. This is followed by a discussion of the characteristics of various afocal underwater viewport types including flat windows, domes and the Ivanoff corrector lens, a derivative of a Galilean wide angle camera adapter. Several new and interesting optical designs derived from the Ivanoff corrector lens are presented including a pair of very compact afocal viewport lenses that are compatible with both in water and in air environments and an afocal underwater hyper-hemispherical fisheye lens.

A lunar orbiting space terminal was recently developed as part of NASA’s Lunar Laser Communications Demonstration program. The space terminal uses a 10 centimeter, inertially-stabilized telescope and a 0.5 watt beam to transmit data at up to 622Mbps between the Moon and one of several ground terminals on Earth. Tight coupling between analysis and testing was used to ensure both performance and survival requirements were met in the operational and non-operational vibration environments. Performance requirements were driven by the need to meet a 4.2 μrad pointing stability requirement in the operational vibration environment. A highly-correlated FEA model was developed using vibration testing to extrapolate the behavior of the system beyond the practical limits of the vibration test bed. The launch load non-operational vibration environment was simulated through both analysis and testing using force-limiting to avoid over designing and over testing the sensitive optics. The iterative and associated challenges of the vibration analysis and testing effort are discussed to show how those efforts helped enable the successful launch, deployment, and ultimately demonstration of NASA’s first space laser communications program.

In this paper, we present our study in packaging efficiency for phosphor-converted white LED (pcW-LED). Then the limit of luminous efficacy of a pcW-LED in different types of packaging is estimated. In the calculation, the EQE of the blue die is assumed 81% and the Stokes loss is counted, we obtain the limit of luminous efficacy, which reaches 300 lm/W, when the color appearance is green-white and the corresponding CCT is between 4000K to 5000K. More consideration for practical limit take consideration of phosphor quantum loss and geometry loss, and the limit of luminous for CRI around 60 is around 240 lm/W, and for CRI larger than 80 is around 175 lm/W.

In this study, a low glare and high-efficient tunnel lighting design which consists of a cluster light-emitting diode and a free-form lens is presented. Most of the energy emitted from the proposed luminaire is transmitted onto the surface of the road in front of drivers, and the probability that the energy is emitted directly into drivers’ eyes is low. Compared with traditional fluorescent lamps, the proposed luminaire, of which the optical utilization factor, optical efficiency, and uniformity are, respectively, 44%, 92.5%, and 0.72, performs favorably in traffic safety, energy saving, and glare reduction.

Nowadays, light emitting diodes (LEDs) have been widely used in backlight module for display technology. Most of researches tend to improve optical performance in specific applications, such as sufficient efficiency, desired intensity distribution and high illuminance uniformity. However, most of phosphor converted white LEDs have the problem of inducing impure white light. The undesired phenomenon of yellow ring or blue ring becomes more serious through incorrect secondary optical design. In this paper, we emphasize on enhancing the spatial color and illuminance uniformity of LED direct-lit backlight using nonimaging achromatic lens design. We propose a new design method to re-distribute and uniform the ratio of blue and yellow light on the target surface. Moreover, we further apply it in direct-lit LED backlight lens design, in which the uniformity of illuminance on the out coupling surface can be as much as 83.7% and the color uniformity triangleu'v') is improved to 0.0039. Therefore, the result of high color and illumination uniformity can be achieved simultaneously.

This paper focuses on designing dichroic filters for changing the color of light-emitting diode (LED) lamps. Dichroic filters are composed of multiple dielectric layers on a substrate. By applying a dichroic filter, some of the LED’s spectral energy is reflected and some is transmitted, which changes the lamp’s color. Conventional methods to obtain spectral transmittance curves have shortcomings. The design criteria for the transmittance curves are incompatible with the metrics used in lighting applications, such as correlated color temperature (CCT) and color rendering index (CRI). Thus, the color rendering performance and the optical transmission of a lighting system are not optimized. This observation leads to the development of a proposed method for designing dichroic filter transmittance curves to provide accurate color shift, high CRI, and sufficient optical transmission. The method initially uses the transmittance curve of an existing color filter that provides a roughly close color shift for the LED lamp to calculate the transmittance curve that causes an accurate color shift by polynomial approximation. Based on the approximated curve, a preliminary transmittance curve without the effect of the LED lamp’s secondary optics is derived and verified in thin-film design and optical design software tools. Further, the derived preliminary transmittance curve is optimized by applying an algorithm to loop through a large amount of representative curves fluctuating near the preliminary curve. The resulting dichroic filter provides an accurate color shift (ΔCCT = –800±50K, Duv = ±0.003), high CRI (Ra and R9 <= 95), and sufficient luminous flux transmission (<= 70%).

Light source for cinema projector requires reliability, high brightness, good color and 3D for without silver screens. To meet these requirements, a laser-phosphor based solid state illuminator with 6 primary colors is proposed. The six primary colors are divided into two groups and include colors of R1, R2, G1, G2, B1 and B2. Colors of B1, B2 and R2 come from lasers of wavelengths 440 nm, 465 nm and 639 nm. Color of G1 comes from G-phosphor pumped by B2 laser. Colors of G2 and R1 come from Y-phosphor pumped by B1 laser. Two groups of colors are combined by a multiband filter and working by alternately switching B1 and B2 lasers. The combined two sequences of three colors are sent to the 3-chip cinema projector and synchronized with frame rate of 120Hz. In 2D mode, the resulting 6 primary colors provide a very wide color gamut. In 3D mode, two groups of red, green and blue primary colors provide two groups of images that received by left and right eyes.

Solar optical modeling tools are valuable for modeling and predicting the performance of solar technology systems. Four optical modeling tools were evaluated using the National Solar Thermal Test Facility heliostat field combined with flat plate receiver geometry as a benchmark. The four optical modeling tools evaluated were DELSOL, HELIOS, SolTrace, and Tonatiuh. All are available for free from their respective developers. DELSOL and HELIOS both use a convolution of the sunshape and optical errors for rapid calculation of the incident irradiance profiles on the receiver surfaces. SolTrace and Tonatiuh use ray-tracing methods to intersect the reflected solar rays with the receiver surfaces and construct irradiance profiles. We found the ray-tracing tools, although slower in computation speed, to be more flexible for modeling complex receiver geometries, whereas DELSOL and HELIOS were limited to standard receiver geometries such as flat plate, cylinder, and cavity receivers. We also list the strengths and deficiencies of the tools to show tool preference depending on the modeling and design needs. We provide an example of using SolTrace for modeling nonconventional receiver geometries. The goal is to transfer the irradiance profiles on the receiver surfaces calculated in an optical code to a computational fluid dynamics code such as ANSYS Fluent. This approach eliminates the need for using discrete ordinance or discrete radiation transfer models, which are computationally intensive, within the CFD code. The irradiance profiles on the receiver surfaces then allows for thermal and fluid analysis on the receiver.

Today´s standard procedure for the examination of the colon uses a digital endoscope located at the tip of a tube encasing wires for camera read out, fibers for illumination, and mechanical structures for steering and navigation. On the other hand, there are swallowable capsules incorporating a miniaturized camera which are more cost effective, disposable, and less unpleasant for the patient during examination but cannot be navigated along the path through the colon. We report on the development of a miniaturized endoscopic camera as part of a completely wireless capsule which can be safely and accurately navigated and controlled from the outside using an electromagnet. The endoscope is based on a global shutter CMOS-imager with 640x640 pixels and a pixel size of 3.6μm featuring through silicon vias. Hence, the required electronic connectivity is done at its back side using a ball grid array enabling smallest lateral dimensions. The layout of the f/5-objective with 100° diagonal field of view aims for low production cost and employs polymeric lenses produced by injection molding. Due to the need of at least one-time autoclaving, high temperature resistant polymers were selected. Optical and mechanical design considerations are given along with experimental data obtained from realized demonstrators.

In the past, the major part of transmissive LED optics was made from injection molded polymers like PMMA or PC. Recent LED developments now show constantly increasing levels of luminous flux and energy densities, which restrict the usability of such polymer optics due to their limitations in thermal stability. Thermal simulations have shown that light guiding/mixing structures (rods) made from polymer materials can easily reach temperatures above their melting point due to the absorption characteristics. However, there is a great demand for such light rods from the automotive and entertainment industry and thus glass is becoming increasingly important as an optical material. Glass has typical transformation temperatures of hundreds of degrees Celsius and therefore withstands the conditions seen with LED without any problems. Square-shaped glass light guides show temperature advantages over round light rods, which are known for being able to produce caustics inside the material causing absorption and temperature hot spots, respectively. This paper presents some comparative thermal simulations by means of the Finite Element Method for a light conductor as an example and gives corresponding assistance for an appropriate material and light guide shape selection for highpower LED optics.

Glassy carbon is used nowadays for a variety of applications because of its mechanical strength, thermal stability and non-sticking adhesion properties. This makes it also a suitable candidate as mold material for precision compression molding of low and high glass-transition temperature materials. To fabricate molds for diffractive optics a highresolution structuring technique is needed. We introduce a process that allows the micro-structuring of glassy carbon by reactive ion etching. Key parameters such as uniformity, surface roughness, edge definition and lateral resolution are discussed. They are the most relevant parameters for a stamp in optical applications. The use of titanium as a hard mask makes it possible to achieve a reasonable selectivity of 4:1, which has so far been one of the main problems in microstructuring of glassy carbon. We investigate the titanium surface structure with its 5-10 nm thick layer of TiO₂ grains and its influence on the shape of the hard mask. In our fabrication procedure we were able to realize optically flat diffractive structures with slope angles of more than 80° at typical feature sizes of 5 μm and at 700 nm depth. The fabricated glassy carbon molds were applied to thermal imprinting onto different glasses. Glassy carbon molds with 1 mm thickness were tested with binary optical structures. Our experiments show the suitability of glassy carbon as molds for cost efficient mass production with a high quality.

Herein we present the implementation of autofocusing in multi-photon Direct Laser Writing (DLW) lithography. It is based on fluorescence occurring within the confined volume of a photopolymer/photoresin excitation resulting to a voxel generation. The proposed method is further successfully employed for the nanofabrication of large scale (500 nm in height, up to 25 mm2 in area) Diffractive Optical Elements (DOE). The produced structures are characterized using Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) and confocal optical profilometry. The introduced technique is potential for a simple, price and effort efficient upgrade of currently existing DLW micro-/nano-lithography setups.

Interference polarizers can be successfully used in lasers and laser devices as independent optical element substituted crystal polarizers. Today, the use of crystal polarizers in some cases can lead to definite difficulties in accordance with peculiarities of laser cavity construction. The novel laser technologies and design of laser elements defined the new demands to optical coatings. In modern lasers interference polarizer can be considered as one of the main element that operates laser radiation. According to special optical outline and the requirements to optical characteristics of laser polarizers can be bryuster or mirror-type. The stable of spectral characteristic at a definite angle is one of the most important parameter. It was shown how optical thickness of each layer influence on angle stability. On the other hand high stable was achieved by using electron-beam ion assisted deposition. The coatings were deposited on the surface of optical glass BK-7 or quartz. Generally, refractory oxides were used. The achievement of the condensation layers structure was provided by active O2 + ions. It was shown, that smooth cleaning by neutral ions as before the evaporation definite separate layer, as after stabilized the optical properties of polarizer. Moreover, the using of ion source allowed increase laser damage threshold. It can be underline that some advantages of ion source revealed during evaporation materials in visible and especially ultra violet region. Also, laser strength was rather more at 1535 nm for ion-assisted deposited films. The average parameters were: minimum transmission efficiency TP < 97%, extinction ratio TP/TS <500, laser damage more than 10 J/cm2, 10 nanosecond pulse at 1064 nm in laser spot 200 μm.

Aluminum 6061 is often considered the preferred material for manufacturing optical components for ground-based astronomical applications. One reason for using this material is its high specific stiffness and excellent thermal properties. Moreover, a large amount of data exists for this material and commercially available aluminum 6061 can be diamond turned to achieve surface roughness values of approximately 4 to 8 nm, which is adequate for applications that involve the infrared spectral range, but not for the near-ultraviolet wavelength (NUV) spectral range. In this study, we used a novel aluminum material, fabricated using a rapid solidification process that is equivalent to the conventional aluminum 6061 alloy grade. Using rapidly solidified aluminum (RSA) can achieve improved surface finish and enhanced optical performance. The rapid solidification process was realized using a melt spinning operation, which achieves a high cooling rate to yield a fine microstructure. The properties of RSA 6061 are similar to those of conventional aluminum 6061, but its grain size is extremely small. In this paper, the background of RSA is introduced, and the diamond turnability characteristics and coating processes for both traditional aluminum 6061 and RSA are discussed. The surface roughness and grain structure of RSA were evaluated using white light interferometers and the surface roughness during coating of the reflectance multilayers of samples were analyzed using near-ultraviolet wavelengths. Finally, indicators such as optimal cutting parameters and optical performance are discussed.

A pair of wedge prisms can be used to scan a laser beam over a specified angular range with a high resolution. The structural parameters of dual prisms directly influence the optical path and generate a tracking trajectory difference. For a remote target, the influences can be ignored, but for a near field target, the opposite is the case. The paper makes a comparison of rotating dual-prism scanner used in near and far field, as well as a forward solution and a reverse one of a laser beam through the rotating dual-prism system. The conclusion is valuable for a rotating dual-prism scanner to perform the optical tracking and targeting direction.

The work is focused on an analysis and modeling of paraxial imaging parameters of an optical system with a variable magnification or focal length, which keeps the position of object and image planes and entrance and exit pupil planes fixed. This system does not move its elements during the change of the magnification or the focal length. Such an effect can be achieved using tunable-focus active lenses. The described double conjugate zoom lens with tunable-focus lenses satisfies the requirement that object, image and pupil planes are fixed during the change of magnification or focal length. The system must be composed of at minimum three optical elements. Formulas are derived, which enable to determine focal lengths of individual elements of the optical system in a general case, when an object is situated in a finite or infinite distance from the optical system. Such an optical system can be principally used in the design of riflescopes with a variable magnification. This design of the riflescope has the advantage of the fixed position of its optical components (tunable-focus lenses). Further, the position of the exit pupil does not change and stays fixed in a fixed distance from the eyepiece during the change of magnification.

Novel thermovision imaging systems having high efficiency require very sophisticated optical components. This paper describes the diffractive optical elements which are designed for the wavelengths between 8 and 14 μm for the application in the FLIR cameras. In the current paper the authors present phase only diffractive elements manufactured in the etched gallium arsenide. Due to the simplicity of the manufacturing process only binary phase elements were designed and manufactured. Such solution exhibits huge chromatic aberration. Moreover, the performance of such elements is rather poor, which is caused by two factors. The first one is the limited diffraction efficiency (c.a. 40%) of binary phase structures. The second problem lies in the Fresnel losses coming from the reflection from the two surfaces (around 50%). Performance of this structures is limited and the imaging contrast is poor. However, such structures can be used for relatively cheap practical testing of the new ideas. For example this solution is sufficient for point spread function (PSF) measurements. Different diffractive elements were compared. The first one was the equivalent of the lens designed on the basis of the paraxial approximation. For the second designing process, the non-paraxial approach was used. It was due to the fact that f/# was equal to 1. For the non-paraxial designing the focal spot is smaller and better focused. Moreover, binary phase structures suffer from huge chromatic aberrations. Finally, it is presented that non-paraxially designed optical element imaging with extended depth of focus (light-sword) can suppress chromatic aberration and therefore it creates the image not only in the image plane.

We have developed near-infrared imaging equipment that can detect small organic substances in foodstuffs with thicknesses of more than 1 mm. The equipment is composed of a high output laser diode and a CMOS camera. The irradiated light power distribution was highly uniform with a maximum optical density of 1.3 W/cm². A 0.3-mmdiameter wooden stick covered with a 2-mm-thick layer of ham can easily be distinguished in the images. The bones in fish and in chicken wing sticks could also be distinguished. The thicknesses of the fish and the chicken wing sticks were approximately 30 mm and 20 mm, respectively. We eliminated the low spatial frequency components from the images to improve the image contrast.

Multiple chips are often bonded in a small single package of LED to obtain higher light flux output. However, the nonuniformity of light pattern always exists due to the high order collimating lamp, which uses the MCLED (Multi-chips LED) as the source. In this paper, the light pattern uniformity of lamp composed of four-in-one MCLED, whose thickness of phosphor layer and the length of lamp are respectively 0.1 mm and 10 mm, is simulated and analyzed. The ray tracing simulated by computer with varying the spacing of chips, concentration of phosphor, shape of lamp, and the corresponding uniformity of light pattern will be analyzed and discussed in detail.

In this study, the corrected color temperature (CCT) of white light, which originates from a white light LED (WLLED) and passes through a volume-scattering diffuser (VSD), is investigated. The VSD with thickness of 2mm is fabricated by mixing the 2um-sized PMMA scattering particles and the epoxy glue with different concentration values. Moreover, in order to understand the influences of the illuminated area and the scattering path of VSD on CCT values, the bulletheaded and lambertian-type WLLEDs are assembled for different positions and distinct orientations along the optical axis in a black cavity. A detailed comparison between results regarding the white light with and without passing through the VSD is offered. The results of this research will help to improve the colorful consistency of the LED lamps which use diffusers.

In this study, a collimated LED light source has been developed as a colorful liquid crystal display backlight, which is driven by a two-field driving scheme to display color. In each field, the angular rays of two colors from LEDs are collimated by a collimation lens, redirected by a light guide and converged by a cylindrical-lens array to map into corresponding sub-pixel positions for efficiently displaying color image. The simulation results of the backlight module and the corresponding experimental results will be discussed in detail.

In this study we tested ns-laser and an atomic layer deposition (ALD) for polishing and coating CNC-machined aluminum freeform mirrors that are used in a compact multipoint fiber optical probe. Two types of ALD coatings, aluminum oxide and silicon dioxide were tested. The surface roughness of mirrors was analyzed prior to and after nanosecond-laser polishing and coating them on a Beneq TFS 200 ALD device. The freeform aluminum mirrors with and without coatings were then measured with optical profiler. The results show that improvement in the surface roughness can be seen with ns-laser polished and ALD coated aluminum surfaces.

For illumination sources designers is important to know the illumination distribution of their products. They can use several viewers of IES files (standard file format determined by Illuminating Engineering Society). This files are necessary not only know the distribution of illumination, but also to plain the construction of buildings by means of specialized softwares, such as Autodesk Revit. In this paper, a complete portable system for luminaries’ characterization is given. The components of the systems are: Irradiance profile meter, which can generate photometry of luminaries of small sizes which covers indoor illumination requirements and luminaries for general areas. One of the meter´s attributes is given by the color sensor implemented, which allows knowing the color temperature of luminary under analysis. The Graphic Unit Interface (GUI) has several characteristics: It can control the meter, acquires the data obtained by the sensor and graphs them in 2D under Cartesian and polar formats or 3D, in Cartesian format. The graph can be exported to png, jpg, or bmp formats, if necessary. These remarkable characteristics differentiate this GUI. This proposal can be considered as a viable option for enterprises of illumination design and manufacturing, due to the relatively low investment level and considering the complete illumination characterization provided.

An analysis of an optical-digital system based on the architecture of the Mach-Zehnder interferometer for recording holographic filters is presented. The holographic recording system makes use of one microscope objective in each interferometer arm. Moreover, the Gabor Wavelet Transform is implemented for the holographic reconstruction stage. The samples studied of this research are selected in order to test the retrieval algorithm and to characterize the resolution of the holographic recording system. In this last step, some sections of an USAF1951 resolution chart are used. These samples allow us to study the features of lighting in the recorded system. Additionally, some organic samples are used to proven the capabilities of the method because biological samples have much complex morphological composition than others. With this in mind, we can verify the frequencies recovered with each of the settings set in the retrieval method. Experimental results are presented.

In direct-drive laser fusion, the sufficient uniformity of focal spot for realizing high efficient compression and central ignition is required. However, the laser beams are difficult to achieve sufficient uniform for compressing the shell symmetrically inward. We proposed a novel scheme to achieve controllable focal length based on electro-optic effect. The electro-optic crystal was placed in the front of the laser fusion system and applied the electro field with approximate spherical distribution. Since the wavefront of laser beam is transformed through the electro-optic crystal, the focal spot of the transformed laser beam would be changed on the target. Theoretical analysis and numerical simulation have been made, and the results show that the proposed scheme could achieve enough controllable focal spot on the target.

This work is dedicated to the evaluation of the chromatic properties of high order kinoforms. Typical kinoform (of the first order) is a phase only structure having the phase retardation varying in the range 0-2π. Such structures are very commonly used in many practical applications for different ranges of electromagnetic radiation like ultraviolet, visible, infrared, terahertz and millimeter waves. Besides those benefits such structures have one crucial disadvantage - they suffer from big chromatic aberration. This limits their practical application only to the narrowband work, where main wavelength must be well defined (Δλ/λ<<1). This paper presents other type of diffractive structures called high order kinoforms (HOK). They exhibit phase retardation of n2π, where n is an integer number much bigger than 1. Due to this fact they are relatively thin and therefore can be manufactured using laser lithography in thick photoresist (deeply etched). On the other hand they are thick enough to suppress chromatic aberrations. In comparison to the well-known Fresnel lens, the high order kinoform structure has precisely controlled phase retardation between different zones. In the case of the Fresnel lens (known from XVIII/XIX century), phase retardations between different zones are random (designing process is based on the geometrical optics). In the case of the high order kinoform working as the spherical lens - taking into account the real size of the detector - it can be shown that the most of the energy being focused in the focal spot will be registered by the detector for different wavelengths. The paper presents simple theoretical considerations, numerical modeling and their experimental evaluation.

Wavefront coding (WFC) uses a special aspheric optics and digital image processing to extend the depth of focus in imaging systems. An intermediate blurred image is generated by the spatial convolution of the image with the point spread function (PSF) of a cubic phase mask. Restoration tests are performed on an optically encoded image. The best option to restore an image is not always given by a deconvolution method using the PSF of the imaging system. Due to it is limited by the perfect PSF of the system. In this study, the restored image is given by a deconvolution method using the numerical PSF. As the quality of the image is depended of the pupil diameter and strength of the wfc phase plate, an optimization was achieved by means of measuring the decoded image contrast. Results shows a high resolution decoded image.

The fields of application for polymer optics are huge and thus the need for polymer optics is steadily growing. Most polymer optics are produced in high numbers by injection molding. Therefore molds and dies that fulfill special requirements are needed. Polishing is usually the last process in the common process chain for production of molds for polymer optics. Usually this process step is done manually by experienced polishers. Due to the small number of skilled professionals and health problems because of the monotonous work the idea was to support or probably supersede manual polishing. Polishing using an industrial robot as movement system enables totally new possibilities in automated polishing. This work focuses on the surface generation with a newly designed polishing setup and on the code generation for the robot movement. The process starts on ground surfaces and with different tools and polishing agents surfaces that fulfill the requirements for injection molding of optics can be achieved. To achieve this the attention has to be focused not only on the process itself but also on tool path generation. A proprietary software developed in the Centre for Optical Technologies in Aalen University allows the tool path generation on almost any surface. This allows the usage of the newly developed polishing processes on different surfaces and enables an easy adaption. Details of process and software development will be presented as well as results from different polishing tests on different surfaces.

SABIC’s ULTEMTM (polyetherimide) resin has been the choice of material for injection moldable micro lenses and lens arrays in optical communication components such as transceivers due to its unique combination of physical, thermal and optical properties including high refractive index, low absorption in near IR range, good dimensional stability and high heat performance. It's known that processing conditions affect properties of final parts. Often the processing conditions are optimized for best mechanical properties, while their effect on optical properties is sidelined. In this study, the effect of injection molding processing conditions on optical properties of polyetherimide resin is discussed.