Layered polymer GRIN lenses and their benefits to optical designs

Abstract

We discuss the findings of a recent optical design study into layered polymeric gradient index lenses (known as L-GRIN). A range of GRIN singlet lenses were designed for various aperture and field-of-view configurations. Their optical performance was compared to polymer diffractive lenses and glass-cemented doublets (both spherical and aspheric) designed to the same specification. We find that diamond-turned polymer GRIN lenses offer comparable performance to achromatic doublets and polymer diffractive hybrid elements over a significant aperture and field-of-view range. We also find that the correction potential of GRIN solutions is substantially increased when the bulk GRIN Abbé value (