Near-field phase profile and far-field contrast modulation for micro-lens arrays at the refraction limit

We investigate the far-field pattern generation for a micro-lens array (MLA) illuminated under different conditions. Plane wave and Gaussian beam illumination are considered for an MLA with a small diameter of 27 microns and 30 microns period. At these dimensions, the optical effects are governed by diffraction and refraction and sometimes the regime is called the refraction limit. For Gaussian beam illumination, a high contrast dot pattern can be obtained in the far field according to the self-imaging theory for point source illumination and it is investigated in the simulation part. Also, we designed an interference microscopy setup to record both the phase and intensity in near field behind the MLA and also in the far field. The new instrument allows us to change illumination conditions from plane wave to point source. We then experimentally compare the near-field phase modulation and resulting far-field intensity for different conditions. For plane wave illumination, a high contrast pattern is observed in the far field. For the Gaussian beam illumination, the contrast of the far-field pattern depends on the distance of the source and MLA resulting in high contrast and a larger field of view only for particular distances depending on the interference of the Gaussian beam curved phase front and the MLA.