Ultra-precision Cutting of Fresnel lenses on Single Crystal Germanium and the machining processing analysis

Single crystal germanium is used in infrared spectroscopes and other optical equipment as an excellent infrared optical material. The development of germanium Fresnel lenses not only improves the optical imaging quality but also enables the miniaturization of optical systems. In a previous work, a Fresnel lens with precise curvatures, sharp edges and precise cross-sectional profiles were fabricated. However, sometimes, microcracks will occur to the edge of grooves when the wear of the diamond tool is large in the machining process. In the present work, in order to minimize the effect of the tool tip wear to the groove edge of Fresnel lens, a novel machining process and machining conditions are proposed for fabricating a high-precision Fresnel lens.