Tunable Fresnel-Zone Lens for Agile Wavefront Control

ABSTRACT: Fresnel-zone lens can meet many of the Air Force's requirements for conformal aperture technology including light-weight, large aperture size, and the ability to conform to a curved surface. However, aberrations limit the effective field-of-view of static Fresnel-zone lens, and the spectral performance is limited to a narrow band. A tunable Fresnel-zone lens with variable-zone-radii will able to image over a wide field-of-view by adjusting defocus to correct for off-axis aberrations and perform a spectral scan from the short-wave through the long-wave infrared. This proposal discusses materials and designs that may be used to create electronically-controlled Fresnel-zone lens without any mechanical parts. BENEFIT: The research and development in this proposal will enable light-weight tunable-optics capable of active-wavefront manipulation through focus control and higher-order compensation. This technology can have a large impact on the aerospace industry by replacing the mechanical gimbals in current systems with solid-state electronically-programmable optics.