Advanced gradient-index lens design tools to maximize system performance and reduce SWaP

Abstract

GRadient-INdex (GRIN) lenses have long been of interest due to their potential for providing levels of performance unachievable with traditional homogeneous lenses. While historically limited by a lack of suitable materials, rapid advancements in manufacturing techniques, including 3D printing, have recently kindled a renewed interest in GRIN optics. Further increasing the desire for GRIN devices has been the advent of Transformation Optics (TO), which provides the mathematical framework for representing the behavior of electromagnetic radiation in a given geometry by “transforming” it to an alternative, usually more desirable, geometry through an appropriate mapping of the constituent material parameters. Using TO, aspherical lenses can be transformed to simpler spherical and flat geometries or even rotationally-asymmetric shapes which result in true 3D GRIN profiles. Meanwhile, there is a critical lack of suitable design tools which can effectively evaluate the optical wave propagation through 3D GRIN profiles produced by TO. Current modeling software packages for optical lens systems also lack advanced multi-objective global optimization capability which allows the user to explicitly view the trade-offs between all design objectives such as focus quality, FOV, unand focal drift due to chromatic aberrations. When coupled with advanced design methodologies such as TO, wavefront matching (WFM), and analytical achromatic GRIN theory, these tools provide a powerful framework for maximizing SWaP (Size, Weight and Power) reduction in GRIN-enabled optical systems. We provide an overview of our advanced GRIN design tools and examples which minimize the presence of mono- and polychromatic aberrations in the context of reducing SWaP.