TITLE:
Reducing Refractive Index Variations in Compression Molded Lenses by Annealing
AUTHORS:
Bo Tao, Lianguan Shen, Allen Yi, Mujun Li, Jian Zhou
KEYWORDS:
Refractive Index; Mach-Zehnder Interferometer; Optical; Annealing; Compression Molding
JOURNAL NAME:
Optics and Photonics Journal,
Vol.3 No.2B,
July
18,
2013
ABSTRACT: Compression molding of glass optics is gradually becoming a viable fabrication
technique for high precision optical lenses. However,
refractive index variation was observed in compression molded glass lenses,
which would contribute to image quality degradation. In this research,
annealing experiments were applied to control the refractive index variation in
molded glass lenses. The refractive index variations pre and post annealing
experiment in molded lenses were measured by an experiment setup based on
Mach-Zehnder interferometer. The experimental results showed that the
refractive index variation can be controlled providing that a proper cooling process
is applied during cooling.