On the other hand, a straightforward extension of the previous FOM approach fails to identify ternary materials that perform significantly better than the optimized binary GRINs, when choosing materials from the Schott Glass catalog.

As might be expected, we show that there are cases where adding the third material significantly improves chromatic correction, compared to a binary GRIN using just two of the three materials. This work explores the implications of adding a third material to the design space of achromatic GRIN singlets. The paper demonstrated the advantage of this approach for designing a flat-flat beam deflector over a broad bandwidth – the control of both index and dispersion throughout the element enabled a far flatter wavelength response than achieved with either a binary GRIN or homogeneous prism. A third material, properly chosen, enables independent control of both the index and dispersion of intermediate blends. With just two materials, specifying the blend that has a specific intermediate index also specifies the dispersion. After searching among all glasses reported in a Zemax version of the Schott Glass optical materials catalog, 10 the top material pair was used to design a simulated f/3 GRIN singlet, with diffraction-limited performance demonstrated across the visible bandwidth.Ī more recent paper 11 introduced the idea of adding a third material to the GRIN system. The resulting FOM, which depended purely on the optical properties of each material in the blend, was used to rank material pairs for their suitability as achromatic GRIN singlets. The model is predicated on forming the gradient index via a smoothly blended mixture of two materials. As manufacturing improves, an important question arises as to which materials are worth the significant development costs for new GRIN capability.Ī previous work 8 by the authors developed a figure-of-merit (FOM) approach to material assessment, rooted in approximations based on paraxial lens theory for radial GRIN lenses, 9 for the specific case of an achromatic GRIN singlet. Modern fabrication techniques are starting to catch up to the challenges posed by GRIN optics, 4- 7 however, which opens up new search spaces for optical design. GRIN optics has a rich history 1- 3 with a small set of successful applications (like the currently ubiquitous use of graded index fiber optics) but hasn’t been widely adopted in typical optical designs due to fabrication and tolerance difficulties. A technology which may offer solutions that increase complexity without a concomitant increase in size or weight is gradient index (GRIN) optics. As demands on quality and quantity of information grow, however, so too does the complexity of the optics. While sensors change and system architectures evolve, what remains unchanged is the desire to keep the optical overhead to a minimum. Optics typically serve as an intermediary between critical information and instruments designed to collect it.

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