The Zone Plate: A New Lease Of Life?

M. C. Hutley

doi:10.1117/12.967314

1 January 1987 The Zone Plate: A New Lease Of Life?

M. C. Hutley

Proceedings Volume 0813, Optics and the Information Age; (1987) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.967314
Event: 14th Congress of the International Commission for Optics, 1987, Quebec, Canada

Abstract

It has long been known that zone plates can be used to form an image but they have been little used in practice because a lens generally performs better. Since a zone plate distributes light into several diffracted orders the efficiency is low and since the focal length is inversely proportional to wave-length the chromatic aberration is enormous. However, despite these drawbacks the zone plate does possess some attractive features: it is a thin structure so it produces no distortion in the image; it is less bulky and lighter than a lens (which would be particularly important for many infrared applications), and can be replicated so it is amenable to inexpensive mass production. We suggest that there are 3 main reasons why zone plates might become more widely used: a change of requirements; improvements in manufacturing technology; and new applications which take advantage of the unique features of the zone plates.

Citation Download Citation

M. C. Hutley "The Zone Plate: A New Lease Of Life?", Proc. SPIE 0813, Optics and the Information Age, (1 January 1987); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.967314

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