Spectral Characterization of Optical Aberrations in Fluidic Lenses

TL;DR

This paper presents a comprehensive numerical and experimental analysis of optical aberrations in fluidic lenses, focusing on their spectral characteristics and chromatic aberrations across the visible spectrum.

Contribution

It introduces a novel combination of wave-front sensing, Zernike polynomial analysis, and clustering techniques to characterize and classify aberrations in fluidic lenses.

Findings

Experimental results agree with the theoretical model.

Chromatic aberrations are effectively characterized using Zernike polynomials.

Clustering techniques reveal distinct spectral response patterns.

Abstract

We report an extensive numerical study and supporting experimental results on the spectral characterization of optical aberrations in macroscopic fluidic lenses with tunable focal distance and aperture shape. Using a Shack-Hartmann wave-front sensor we experimentally reconstruct the near-field wave-front transmitted by the fluidic lenses, and we characterize the chromatic aberrations in terms of Zernike polynomials in the visible range. Moreover, we further classify the spectral response of the lenses using clustering techniques, in addition to correlation and convolution measurements. Experimental results are in agreement with our theoretical model of the non-linear deformation of thin elastic membranes.