SPECTRAL PROPERTIES OF MULTIORDER DIFFRACTIVE LENSES

Diffractive lenses have been traditionally designed with the first dif fracted order. The spectral characteristics of diffractive lenses oper ating in higher diffracted orders differ significantly from the first- order case. Multiorder diffractive lenses offer a new degree of freedo m in the design of broadband and multispectral optical systems that in clude diffractive optical elements. It is shown that blazing the surfa ce-relief diffractive lens for higher diffraction orders enables the d esign of achromatic and apochromatic singlets. The wavelength-dependen t optical transfer function and the associated Strehl ratio are derive d for multiorder diffractive lenses. Experiments that illustrate lens performance in two spectral bands are described, and the results show excellent agreement with the theoretical predictions.