Telephotolens design with refractove/diffractive hybrid lens

Abstract

300mm F/4.0 telephotolens with diffractive hybrid lens was designed, and its optical performance was tested and compared with a traditional lens system. DOE(Diffractive Optical Element) reconstructs wavefronts using wave phenomena of light to focus the incident light onto the focal point and has negative Abbe number while a traditional lens uses geometrical phenomena of light and has positive Abbe number. Therefore, a diffractive hybrid lens containing both refractive and diffractive elements can remarkably correct chromatic aberration and spherical aberration of an optical system. We investigated and analyzed the optical properties of a diffractive hybrid lens for the visible spectrum, and we used a difractive hybrid lens to design and evaluate a 300mm F/4.0 telephotolens without the special LD(Low Dispersive) glass lens which is costly and difficult to manufacture. Most traditional telephotolenses use the special LD glass for chromatic aberration correcton. Optical performance tests such as resolution and characteristics of aberration of both lens systems using a diffractive hybrid lens and traditional lens were performed.