Modulation of optical focusing by using optimized zone plate structures

Abstract

The focusing properties of the optimized zone plate structures which have upper and lower zones with different thicknesses are studied by the three-dimensional finite-difference time-domain method. Two kinds of materials are chosen, including silver representing metal and BK7 glass representing dielectric. An optimization algorithm is applied to tune the parameters of zone plate structures. Several optimized zone plate structures with smaller circular-shape focus are presented. By using the angular spectrum representation method, we found that the cases with smaller focal sizes have larger high-k components; however, the intensities of side lobes also become larger in comparison with the main beam. It is also found that the phase differences between different spatial field components can have the influences on focusing properties. A special case with two focuses is shown by changing the cost function of the same optimization algorithm. Our findings suggest that the optimized zone plate structures can reconstruct the light intensity distribution and have a great potential for the applications in imaging, lithography, and data storage.

Tunable focusing properties using optofluidic Fresnel zone plates

“…[11][12][13] To date, new materials of FZPs have been developed such as metal, [14][15][16] dielectric 17 or metaldielectric multilayer 18 materials. Furthermore, disparate thickness, 19 gradient-index media 20 and spiral phases 21 have also been studied to show a better focusing property and higher resolution. Now the in-plane FZPs 3,22 are widely applied in planar optical integrated system.…”