Design and fabrication of complicated diffractive optical elements on multiple curved surfaces

Fabrication of multiple arbitrary diffractive optical elements (DOEs) on multiple curved surfaces is always a challenge; here we propose an effective optimization method to fabricate complicated DOEs on several curved surfaces at the same time. First we design phase distribution to modulate complicated three-dimensional (3D) intensity distribution on multiple curved surfaces simultaneously, and then by exposure, the intensity distribution is transferred into the pure-phase or depth distribution. Numerical simulations and optical fabrication are performed for different intensity distributions: 3D binary patterns and 3D gray level patterns, on two or three curved surfaces, and both are in nice agreement. Since multiple DOEs are fabricated on curved surfaces simultaneously, the collimation of different curved surfaces is avoided, and it could improve the fabrication efficiency. It is expected that this proposed method would be employed in various precision 3D optical fabrication and processing in the future.