Abstract

When a radially inhomogeneous sphere is cladded with an additional refractive-index medium, the spherical transverse aberration of a resultant lens is minimized in order to image a point light source in the diffraction-limited spot size for a lens a few millimeters in diameter with ~0.4 N.A. Examples of numerical data used in designing such sphere lenses are given for three different cases: imaging, Fourier transform, and optical disk reading. Various uses of these lenses are also envisioned for demonstrating their potential usefulness.

© 1981 Optical Society of America

Graded-index sphere lens with hemispherical rod cladding

K. Kikuchi, T. Morikawa, J. Shimada, and K. Sakurai
Appl. Opt. 21(15) 2734-2738 (1982)

Electromagnetic modes of an inhomogeneous sphere

Lee W. Casperson
Appl. Opt. 20(15) 2738-2741 (1981)

Transmission bows of radially inhomogeneous spheres

James A. Lock and Philip Laven
Appl. Opt. 56(19) G9-G19 (2017)

Spherical gradient-index sphere lens

Yasuhiro Koike, Yuji Sumi, and Yasuji Ohtsuka
Appl. Opt. 25(19) 3356-3363 (1986)

Morphology-dependent resonances in radially inhomogeneous spheres

D. Q. Chowdhury, S. C. Hill, and P. W. Barber
J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 8(11) 1702-1705 (1991)