Three dimensional analysis of chromatic aberration in diffractive elements with extended depth of focus

Corneal Stability following Hyperopic LASIK with Advanced Laser Ablation Profiles Analyzed by a Light Propagation Study

Purpose

To assess anterior corneal surface stability 12 months following hyperopic LASIK correction with a light propagation algorithm.

Setting

Vissum Instituto Oftalmológico de Alicante, Universidad Miguel Hernández, Alicante, Spain.

Methods

This retrospective consecutive observational study includes 37 eyes of 37 patients treated with 6th-generation excimer laser platform (Schwind Amaris). Hyperopic LASIK was performed in all of them by the same surgeon (JLA) and completed 12-month follow-up. Corneal topography was analyzed with a light propagation algorithm, to assess the stability of the corneal outcomes along one year of follow-up.

Results

Between three and twelve months postoperatively, an objective corneal power (OCP) regression of 0.39 D and 0.41 D was found for 6 mm and 9 mm central corneal zone, respectively. Subjective outcomes at the end of the follow-up period were as follows: 65% of eyes had spherical equivalent within ±0.50 D. 70% of eyes had an uncorrected distance visual acuity 20/20 or better. 86% of eyes had the same or better corrected distance visual acuity. In terms of stability, 0.14 D of regression was found. No statistically significant differences were found for all the study parameters evaluated at different postoperative moments over the 12-month period.

Conclusions

Light propagation analysis confirms corneal surface stability following modern hyperopic LASIK with a 6th-generation excimer laser technology over a 12-month period.

Chromatic aberration control with liquid crystal spatial phase modulators

The chromatic behavior of diffractive optical elements, exhibiting 2π-wrapped phase profiles, implemented into liquid crystal spatial light modulators (LC-SLM) is described. A wrapped phase map is only equivalent to the original continuous profile for the design wavelength while at other wavelengths there are unwanted phase jumps and the profile does not correspond to a pure defocus. For those conditions the wrapped profile behaves as a multiple order lens (multi-focal lens). The optical power dispersion for each order is linearly proportional to the wavelength, while the energy of each order depends on the design wavelength and the material dispersion. For practical purposes, for most of the visible range only first order (main defocus) is relevant but two other orders may also be considered depending on the actual PSF of the system. As an application, we demonstrate that the longitudinal chromatic aberration of the eye can be compensated by the diffractive lens dispersion when the appropriate defocus is programmed into the SLM.

Experimental observation of the effect of generic singularities in polychromatic dark hollow beams

This Letter presents the essence of our recent experimental study on generic singularities carrying spatially partially coherent, polychromatic dark hollow beams (PDHBs). To the best of our knowledge, this is the first experimental demonstration of generic singularities-induced wavefront tearing in focused polychromatic beams.

Multiple annular linear diffractive axicons

We propose a chromatic analysis of multiple annular linear diffractive axicons. Large aperture axicons are optical devices providing achromatic nondiffracting beams, with an extended depth of focus, when illuminated by a white light source, due to chromatic foci superimposition. Annular apertures introduce chromatic foci separation, and because chromatic aberrations result in focal segment axial shifts, polychromatic imaging properties are partially lost. We investigate here various design parameters that can be used to achieve color splitting, filtering, and combining using these properties. In order to improve the low-power efficiency of a single annular axicon, we suggest a spatial multiplexing of concentric annular axicons with different sizes and periods we call multiple annular aperture diffractive axicons (MALDAs). These are chosen to maintain focal depths while enabling color imaging with sufficient diffraction efficiency. Illustrations are given for binary phase diffractive axicons, considering technical aspects such as grating design wavelength and phase dependence due to the grating thickness.

Improvement of lens axicon's performance for longitudinally polarized beam generation by adding a dedicated phase transmittance

The focal field of high NA lens axicon with a binary-phase optical component is calculated by using vector diffraction theory. Numerical results show that for a radially polarized Bessel Gaussian input field, the proposed system generates a subwavelength (0.395λ) longitudinally polarized beam with large uniform depth of focus (approximately 6 λ).

Binary sub-wavelength diffractive lenses with long focal depth and high transverse resolution

This study explores two-dimensional binary sub-wavelength diffractive lenses (BSDLs) for implementing long focal depth and high transverse resolution based on the rigorous electromagnetic theory and the finite-difference time-domain method. Focusing performances, such as the actual focal depth, the ratio between the focal depth of the designed BSDL and the focal depth of the conventional sub-wavelength lens and the spot size of the central lobe at the actual focal plane, for different f-numbers, have been studied in the case of TE incidence polarization wave. The rigorous numerical results indicate that the designed BSDLs indeed have long focal depth and high transverse resolution by modulating the binary sub-wavelength characteristic sizes. Because BSDLs have the ability for monolithic integration and can require only single step fabrication, the investigations may provide useful information for BSDLs' application in micro-optical systems.

Imaging with extended focal depth by means of the refractive light sword optical element

The paper presents first experiments with a refractive light sword optical element (LSOE). A refractive version of the LSOE was prepared in photoresist by gray scale photolithography. Then we examined chromatic aberrations of the produced element and compared them with those corresponding to two different lenses. For this purpose we performed two experiments, the first one where white light illumination was used and the latter one by the help of monochromatic illumination with three different wavelengths. The obtained results lead to the conclusion that the refractive LSOE does not exhibit significant chromatic aberrations and can be successfully used for imaging with extended depth of focus in polychromatic illumination.