Design, simulation, and quality evaluation of micro-optical freeform beam shapers at different illumination conditions

A design method to generate thin micro-optical freeform (MOF) beam shapers by clipping or wrapping an original and much thicker freeform surface is provided. MOF elements are situated at the border between refractive and diffractive optical elements. The influence of parameters such as the clipping factor q, the peak-to-valley amplitude of the original surface, the design wavelength and the spectrum of the light source (single wavelength and multiple wavelength lines) into the quality of the output intensity distributions has been studied. Integer q values are mandatory for good quality at monochromatic illumination. On the contrary, the quality obtained by broadband illumination oscillates with q and peaks maximally at around q=3.