Fabrication of aspherical polymeric lenses using tunable ferrogel molds

• DOI: 10.1364/ao.386292
• Publication Date: 2020-02-10T20:30:08Z
• Authors: Mojtaba Falahati; Yu-Chung Chang; Parvaneh Ahmadvand; Wenchen Zhou; Allen Yi; Lei Li
• Keywords: Hyperbola

The majority of optical lenses have spherical surface profiles because they are convenient to fabricate. Replacing optics with aspheric leads smaller size, lighter weight, and less complicated systems a superior imaging quality. However, fabrication is expensive time-consuming. Here, we introduce straightforward low-cost casting method fabricate polymeric lenses. An elastomeric ferrogel was formed into an aspherical profile by using designed magnetic field then used as mold. Different types from parabola hyperbola can be this tuning the field. A home-built Shack-Hartmann sensor employed characterize cast effects intensity, gradient field, susceptibility on lens were investigated. This technique for rapid-forming different sizes shapes.