1 research outputs found
Generation of Aspherical Optical Lenses via Arrested Spreading and Pinching of a Cross-Linkable Liquid
Aspherical optical lenses with spatially
varying curvature are
desired for capturing high quality, aberration free images in numerous
optical applications. Conventionally such lenses are prepared by multistep
top-down processes which are expensive, time-consuming, and prone
to high failure rate. In this context, an alternate method is presented
here based on arrested spreading of a sessile drop of a transparent,
cross-linkable polymeric liquid on a solid substrate heated to an
elevated temperature. Whereas surface tension driven flow tends to
render it spherical, rapid cross-linking arrests such flow so that
nonequilibrium aspherical shapes are attained. It is possible to tune
also the initial state of the drop via delayed pinching of a liquid
cylinder which precedes its release on the substrate. This method
has led to the generation of a wide variety of optical lenses, ranging
from spherical plano convex to superspherical solid immersion to exotic
lenses not achieved via conventional methods