The Staircase Lens: a novel tool for athermalization and archromatization

We propose the development of an innovative new type of hybrid diffractive-refractive optical element, called a staircase lens. This new type of lens has many advantages over both traditional refractive lenses and common diffractive elements. The staircase lens is an excellent tool to use for correcting thermal effects, chromatic aberration, or field curvature. The advantages of the staircase lens arise from the fact it has an infinite focal length (zero power) at the nominal temperature, wavelength, and field coordinate. Deviations in temperature, wavelength, and field coordinate give the staircase lens power, allowing it to correct the aberrations of other elements in the system.