Fraxicon for Optical Applications with Aperture ∼1 mm: Characterisation Study
Haoran Mu,
Daniel Smith,
Soon Hock Ng,
Vijayakumar Anand,
Nguyen Hoai An Le,
Raghu Dharmavarapu,
Zahra Khajehsaeidimahabadi,
Rachael T. Richardson,
Patrick Ruther,
Paul R. Stoddart,
Henrikas Gricius,
Tomas Baravykas,
Darius Gailevičius,
Gediminas Seniutinas,
Tomas Katkus,
Saulius Juodkazis
Affiliations
Haoran Mu
Optical Sciences Centre, ARC Training Centre in Surface Engineering for Advanced Materials (SEAM), Swinburne University of Technology, Hawthorn, VIC 3122, Australia
Daniel Smith
Optical Sciences Centre, ARC Training Centre in Surface Engineering for Advanced Materials (SEAM), Swinburne University of Technology, Hawthorn, VIC 3122, Australia
Soon Hock Ng
Optical Sciences Centre, ARC Training Centre in Surface Engineering for Advanced Materials (SEAM), Swinburne University of Technology, Hawthorn, VIC 3122, Australia
Vijayakumar Anand
Optical Sciences Centre, ARC Training Centre in Surface Engineering for Advanced Materials (SEAM), Swinburne University of Technology, Hawthorn, VIC 3122, Australia
Nguyen Hoai An Le
Optical Sciences Centre, ARC Training Centre in Surface Engineering for Advanced Materials (SEAM), Swinburne University of Technology, Hawthorn, VIC 3122, Australia
Raghu Dharmavarapu
Optical Sciences Centre, ARC Training Centre in Surface Engineering for Advanced Materials (SEAM), Swinburne University of Technology, Hawthorn, VIC 3122, Australia
Zahra Khajehsaeidimahabadi
Optical Sciences Centre, ARC Training Centre in Surface Engineering for Advanced Materials (SEAM), Swinburne University of Technology, Hawthorn, VIC 3122, Australia
Rachael T. Richardson
Bionics Institute, East Melbourne, VIC 3002, Australia
Patrick Ruther
Department of Microsystems Engineering (IMTEK), University of Freiburg, 79110 Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany
Paul R. Stoddart
Optical Sciences Centre, ARC Training Centre in Surface Engineering for Advanced Materials (SEAM), Swinburne University of Technology, Hawthorn, VIC 3122, Australia
Henrikas Gricius
Laser Research Center, Physics Faculty, Vilnius University, Sauletekio Ave. 10, 10223 Vilnius, Lithuania
Tomas Baravykas
Femtika Ltd., Keramikų Str. 2, 10233 Vilnius, Lithuania
Darius Gailevičius
Laser Research Center, Physics Faculty, Vilnius University, Sauletekio Ave. 10, 10223 Vilnius, Lithuania
Gediminas Seniutinas
Optical Sciences Centre, ARC Training Centre in Surface Engineering for Advanced Materials (SEAM), Swinburne University of Technology, Hawthorn, VIC 3122, Australia
Tomas Katkus
Optical Sciences Centre, ARC Training Centre in Surface Engineering for Advanced Materials (SEAM), Swinburne University of Technology, Hawthorn, VIC 3122, Australia
Saulius Juodkazis
Optical Sciences Centre, ARC Training Centre in Surface Engineering for Advanced Materials (SEAM), Swinburne University of Technology, Hawthorn, VIC 3122, Australia
Emerging applications of optical technologies are driving the development of miniaturised light sources, which in turn require the fabrication of matching micro-optical elements with sub-1 mm cross-sections and high optical quality. This is particularly challenging for spatially constrained biomedical applications where reduced dimensionality is required, such as endoscopy, optogenetics, or optical implants. Planarisation of a lens by the Fresnel lens approach was adapted for a conical lens (axicon) and was made by direct femtosecond 780 nm/100 fs laser writing in the SZ2080™ polymer with a photo-initiator. Optical characterisation of the positive and negative fraxicons is presented. Numerical modelling of fraxicon optical performance under illumination by incoherent and spatially extended light sources is compared with the ideal case of plane-wave illumination. Considering the potential for rapid replication in soft polymers and resists, this approach holds great promise for the most demanding technological applications.
