Diffraction Efficiency of High-NA Continuous-Relief Diffractive Lenses

Diffractive lenses are key elements in a large variety of optical systems. In hybrid refractive/diffractive optical systems they are used as powerful elements for aberration correction. Other applications, such as fiber coupling and optoelectronic devices, benefit from the fact that diffractive structures are thin and lightweight, enabling very compact systems. In addition, low-cost replication processes with a high profile fidelity make the use of diffractive lenses in prototype systems as well as in volume production very attractive.