Layered polymer GRIN lenses and their benefits to optical designs

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 Abbe value (V 10) is negative, the GRIN distribution is radial, or the index range (Delta N) of the GRIN is increased significantly.