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January 12, 2006

Deep aspheric Fresnel lens

A deep aspheric Fresnel lens. Diamond machining of freeform mirror surfaces offers unprecedented possibilities for optical design--including compact asymmetric systems, non-imaging optics or manipulation of intensity distributions--like the transformation of a spotlight into letters and digits, as shown in this image.

Design and fabrication of the complex-shaped deflection mirror required for this task was achieved within the U.S.-Germany Collaborative Research Center, called Process Chains for the Replication of Complex Optical Components, supported by the National Science Foundation and the German Science Foundation. (Date of Image: 2004)

Credit: Developed under the U.S.-Germany Transregional Collaborative Research Center SFB-TR4, Process Chains for the Replication of Complex Optical Components, funded by the National Science Foundation and the German Science Foundation Developed u


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