Abstract

The method of using wavelength shift in the construction of IR holographic lenses¹ has brought forth a new dimension of flexibility in approaching the difficult problem of making low f/No. diffraction-limited HOEs. This paper considers a particular aspect of the technique, namely, the double-wavelength shift scheme in the construction of low f/No. HOE objectives or collimators. A phase corrector plate H_c is first fabricated holographically at the shorter wavelength (for example, argon blue line). The required HOE objective lens is then constructed by interference of a plane wave and a spherical wave at the intermediate wavelength (for example, argon green line). The corrector plate is placed in the plane wave beam during the recording, so that the beam emerging from H_c has the necessary phase correction function for the HOE H. The HOE is then used in the designated longer wavelength (for example, He-Ne red line). By carefully adjusting the scale factor v between the recording configuration of H_c and that of H, we succeed in reducing the bulk of the residual phase errors in the single-wavelength shift scheme where the third-order Seidel aberrations have been eliminated.

© 1987 Optical Society of America