Harnessing Mechanical Deformation to Reduce Spherical Aberration in Soft Lenses

Mechanical deformation has recently emerged as a promising platform to realize optical devices with tunable response. While most studies to date have focused on the tuning of the focal length, here we use a combination of experiments and analyses to show that an applied tensile strain can also large...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inPhysical review letters Vol. 126; no. 8; p. 084301
Main Authors Zareei, Ahmad, Medina, Eder, Bertoldi, Katia
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States 26.02.2021
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Summary:Mechanical deformation has recently emerged as a promising platform to realize optical devices with tunable response. While most studies to date have focused on the tuning of the focal length, here we use a combination of experiments and analyses to show that an applied tensile strain can also largely reduce spherical aberration. We first demonstrate the concept for a cylindrical elastomeric lens and then show that it is robust and valid over a range of geometries and material properties. As such, our study suggests that large mechanical deformations may provide a simple route to achieve the complex profiles required to minimize aberration and realize lenses capable of producing images of superior quality.
ISSN:1079-7114
DOI:10.1103/PhysRevLett.126.084301