Large aperture high diffraction efficiency off-axis Fresnel lens fabrication and analysis

Abstract

Large aperture high diffraction efficiency off-axis Fresnel lens is one of the most important optical elements in future 10m scale aperture transmissive space telescope systems. Improving diffraction efficiency and effective aperture are long-term goals and bottlenecks for engineering applications. A 4-level off-axis fresnel lens with Ф350 mm effective aperture and 2 µm critical dimension was fabricated through overlay etching technique bylaser direct writing system. Average diffraction efficiency of 75.9% was achieved and certain distribution pattern was observed. Influence of alignment errors on diffraction efficiency distribution was analysed and discussed in detail. This work presented the best results to our knowledge among the same field with similar aperture and critical dimension in open publications, and layed a solid foundation for future large aperture diffractive telescope development.