Abstract
Conventional materials used for optical lenses are classified into two groups, namely inorganic glass and optics polymers. Since optics polymers have the advantage of lower costs and mass-production, they are very popular in the market of small-size optical lenses. As the demands for high quality increase, optical lenses made of inorganic glass are in greater needs today. Hence, precision glass molding technology has become the key technology to produce high quality optical lenses in recent years. Nowadays, the applications of aspherical surfaces in molding lenses to compensate aberrations and reduce the number of lenses are growing in the market. However, production problems such as inhomogeneous shrinkage due to rapid temperature changes and residual stresses with variations in refractive index inside the lens are challenging during the manufacture of glass lenses. This thesis investigates primary aberrations induced by the residual stresses and possible remedies for process inefficiency. First, optics simulation packages are adopted for establishment in distribution of refractive index inside target lenses with numerical analysis for the lens performances. Then, Shack Hartmann wavefront sensors are employed for lens performance measurement system with assessment in the aberrations expressed by Zernike polynomials. Through comparison of the experimental measurements to the optics simulation results analysis of simulation results, post-annealing process can significantly circumvent the problem of refractive index variations in precision molding lenses. The results could be used in optical design of precision glass molded lenses to compensate possible defects and optimize optical performance before the lenses are molded.