Design and fabrication of complicated diffractive optical elements on multiple curved surfaces

Area of Science:

• Optics and Photonics
• Optical Engineering
• Materials Science

Background:

• Fabricating multiple diffractive optical elements (DOEs) on curved surfaces presents significant challenges.
• Simultaneous fabrication on multiple curved surfaces is particularly difficult, often requiring complex alignment and collimation steps.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose and validate an effective optimization method for simultaneous fabrication of multiple arbitrary DOEs on multiple curved surfaces.
• To demonstrate the capability of fabricating complex three-dimensional (3D) intensity distributions on curved surfaces.

Main Methods:

• Designing phase distribution to modulate 3D intensity patterns on multiple curved surfaces.
• Transferring intensity distribution to pure-phase or depth profiles via exposure.
• Performing numerical simulations and optical fabrication for validation.

Main Results:

• Successfully fabricated multiple DOEs on two and three curved surfaces simultaneously.
• Achieved good agreement between numerical simulations and optical fabrication results for 3D binary and gray-level patterns.
• Demonstrated avoidance of collimation issues for different curved surfaces, improving fabrication efficiency.

Conclusions:

• The proposed optimization method is effective for simultaneous fabrication of complex DOEs on multiple curved surfaces.
• This technique offers improved fabrication efficiency and avoids common challenges associated with curved optics.
• The method holds potential for future applications in precision 3D optical fabrication and processing.