Abstract

Recently, a single step technique for the fabrication of microlenses was reported, in which a laser induced thermal runaway process caused a local melting transition near the surface of a semiconductor doped glass. [1] These microlenses were produced on time scales of a fraction of a second and in a single step, a dramatic improvement over conventional fabrication techniques, where multiple processing steps and long processing times are required. Using this method, we have produced micro -elliptical lenses and demonstrated their capability to correct the output of a diode laser. In addition, microlens arrays have been produced using diffractive spot generators to irradiate the glass. Because of heat transfer effects, this approach had to be modified to produced equivalent microlenses throughout the array. The appropriate spot grating phase mask design to generate uniform arrays has been addressed and is also discussed in the work that follows.

© 1996 Optical Society of America