Abstract

Microlenses are becoming standard optical components with current applications in printers, facsimile machines, and optical communications systems. Future applications might exist in the field of optical interconnections in VLSI systems and in optical computers. A variety of techniques exists for the fabrication of microlenses. We are mainly interested in diffractive lenses because they are computer generated and therefore offer a large flexibility in their design. As an example, we have demonstrated an array of 10 × 10 lenslets which was fabricated by deposition of thin films of SiO on a quartz glass substrate. The phase structure of the lenslets consists of eight discrete levels. The rectangularshaped lenses have a size of 1.5 × 1.5 mm. The diffraction efficiency was measured to be 91% which is close to the theoretical value.

© 1989 Optical Society of America