Abstract
We investigate macroscopic polymer lenses (0.5- to 2.5-cm diameter) fabricated by dropping hydro- phobic photocurable resin onto the surface of various hydrophilic liquid surfaces. Due to the intermolecular forces along the interface between the two liquids, a lens shape is formed. We find that we can vary the lens geometry by changing the region over which the resin is allowed to spread and the surface tension of the substrate to produce lenses with theoretically determined focal lengths ranging from 5 to 25 mm. These effects are varied by changing the container width, substrate composition, and substrate temperature. We present data for five different variants, demonstrating that we can control the lens dimensions for polymer lens applications that require high surface quality. © The Authors. Published by SPIE under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. Distribution or reproduction of this work in whole or in part requires full attribution of the original publication, including its DOI.
Highlights
Glass has been the standard for high-quality optics due to its hard surface, making it polishable and scratch resistant
We focus on manipulating the shape of macroscopic (0.5 to 2.5 cm) polymer lenses made using a system of two interfaces: one between a substrate and a liquid resin and the other between the resin and air
The silane-coated beaker resulted in lenses with no significant difference in height-to-width ratio (HWR) from lenses made in uncoated beakers of the same width
Summary
Glass has been the standard for high-quality optics due to its hard surface, making it polishable and scratch resistant. Other methods use surface tension to create a lens shape, either by dropping the polymer onto flat surfaces or injecting the polymer between two liquids of different densities.[7,11] These techniques are preferable since the surface quality is not affected by the roughness of solid surfaces. These have only been introduced on the microscale. We recommend that for future experiments, a reproducible dropping method be developed
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