The asphere's more complex surface profile can eliminate spherical aberration and reduce other optical aberrations compared to a simple lens. A single aspheric lens can often replace a much more complex multi-lens system. The resulting device is smaller and lighter, and possibly cheaper than the multi-lens design.

Aspheric lenses are also sometimes used for eyeglasses. These are typically designed to give a thinner lens, and also distort the viewer's eyes less as seen by other people, producing better aesthetic appearance. In a prescription for the farsighted, the lens curve flattens toward the edge of the glass, and in a prescription for the nearsighted, the surface becomes steeper toward the lens edge. Aspheric eyeglass lenses typically do not provide better vision than standard "best form" lenses, but rather allow a thinner, flatter lens to be made without compromising the optical performance.

Manufacture

Larger aspheres are made by grinding and polishing. Lenses produced by these techniques are used in telescopes, projection TVs, missile guidance systems, and scientific research instruments. First, a blank is ground to roughly the right form by point-contact contouring. A variety of techniques can then be used to polish the optic to its final shape. In some cases, aspheric surfaces can be made by polishing with a small tool with a compliant surface that conforms to the optic, although precise control of the surface form and quality is difficult, and the results may change as the tool wears.

Single-point diamond turning is an alternate process, in which a computer-controlled lathe uses a diamond tip to directly cut the desired profile into a piece of glass or another optical material. Diamond turning is slow and has limitations in the materials on which it can be used, and the surface accuracy and smoothness that can be achieved. It is particularly useful for infrared optics.

Several "finishing" methods can be used to improve the precision and surface quality of the polished surface. These include ion-beam finishing, abrasive water jets, and magnetorheological finishing, in which a magnetically-guided fluid jet is used to remove material from the surface.

Another method for producing aspheric lenses is by depositing optical resin onto a spherical lens to form a composite lens of aspherical shape. Plasma ablation has also been proposed, such as by RAPT Industries.

The non-spherical curvature of an aspheric lens can also be created by blending from a spherical into an aspherical curvature by grinding the curvatures off-axis. Dual rotating axis grinding can be used for high index glass that isn't easily spin molded like the CR-39 resin lens is. Techniques such as laser ablation can also be used to modify the curvature of a lens, but the polish quality of the resulting surfaces is not as good as those achieved with lapidary techniques.

Standards for the dispensing of prescription eyeglass lenses discourage the use of curvatures that deviate from definite focal lengths. Multiple focal lengths are accepted in the form of bifocals, trifocals, vari-focals, and cyclindrical components for astigmatism.

History

Early attempts at making aspheric lenses to correct spherical aberration were made by René Descartes in the 1620s, and by Constantijn Huygens in the 1630s. The Visby lenses produced by Vikings on the island of Gotland in the 10th or 11th century are also aspheric, but there is no evidence that the science behind the technique was known, they were 'simply' produced by craftsmen working from experience of what worked.

Francis Smethwick ground the first high-quality aspheric lenses and presented them to the Royal Society on February 27, 1667/8. A telescope containing four aspheric elements was judged superior to a "common, yet very good" telescope used for comparison, and aspheric reading and burning glasses also outdid their spherical equivalents.

Moritz von Rohr is usually credited with the design of the first aspheric lenses for eyeglasses. He invented the eyeglass lens designs that became the Zeiss Punktal lenses.

Non-optical advantages of aspheric eyeglass lenses

High minus lenses, especially finished in a plastic resin lens, have dangerously curved edges that do not bevel off sufficiently to protect the eye from injury. Serious injury to the eye is often seen from blunt trauma, when the edge of a thick lens has been mounted in a poorly fit frame. Bi-concave lens design is different from the usual plus four base curvature ordered in thin lens prescriptions, but by splitting the curvature in thirds or so, a thinner lens is developed, although costing more, and more difficult to mount into a frame.

Testing of aspheric lens systems

The optical quality of a lens system can be tested in an optics or physics laboratory using bench apertures, optic tubes, lenses, and a source. Refractive and reflective optical properties can be tabulated as a function of wavelength, to approximate system performances; tolerances and errors can also be evaluated. In addition to focal integrity, aspheric lens systems can be tested for aberrations before being deployed.

See also

• Hyperbola
• Parabola

References