Performance evaluation of GRIN lenses by ray tracing method

Plastic gradient-index lenses produce clear images with negligible aberration and distortion. One of the methods for fabricating these lenses involves pulling up the core fiber vertically from a polymer solution whose refractive index has been adjusted to the desired value. Since the molecules from the solution diffuse into the inner layer, the monomer components are distributed in the radial direction. The monomer distribution is fixed in the photopolymerization process, and this forming process is repeated several times with adjusting the composition of the solution; hence, a specific refractive index distribution is obtained. We considered a numerical model of the interdiffusion process and analyzed refractive index distribution that could well reproduce the experimental results. Moreover, we employed the ray tracing method to calculate the modulation transfer function and used the transfer function to evaluate the GRIN lens performance. Simulation results showed that our evaluation method well duplicates the experimental results. We thus developed an integrated simulation method for the fabrication and performance evaluation of GRIN lenses.