Field curvature reduction in miniaturized high numerical aperture and large field-of-view objective lenses with sub 1 µm lateral resolution

Sophia Laura Stark; Herbert Gross; Katharina Reglinski; Bernhard Messerschmidt; Christian Eggeling

doi:10.1364/BOE.499785

Field curvature reduction in miniaturized high numerical aperture and large field-of-view objective lenses with sub 1 µm lateral resolution

Biomed Opt Express. 2023 Nov 7;14(12):6190-6205. doi: 10.1364/BOE.499785. eCollection 2023 Dec 1.

Authors

Sophia Laura Stark¹, Herbert Gross², Katharina Reglinski^{3

4

5}, Bernhard Messerschmidt¹, Christian Eggeling^{3

4}

Affiliations

¹ Grintech GmbH, Otto-Eppenstein-Str. 7, 07745 Jena, Germany.
² Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering IOF, Albert-Einstein-Str. 7, 07745 Jena, Germany.
³ Institute of Applied Optics and Biophysics, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena, Max-Wien-Platz 4, 07743 Jena, Germany.
⁴ Leibniz Institute of Photonic Technology e.V., Albert-Einstein-Str. 9, 07745 Jena, Germany.
⁵ University Hospital Jena, Bachstr. 18, 07743 Jena, Germany.

Abstract

In this paper the development of a miniaturized endoscopic objective lens for various biophotonics applications is presented. While limiting the mechanical dimensions to 2.2 mm diameter and 13 mm total length, a numerical aperture of 0.7 in water and a field-of-view (FOV) diameter of 282 µm are achieved. To enable multimodal usage a wavelength range of 488 nm to 632 nm was considered. The performed broad design study aimed for field curvature reduction when maintaining the sub 1 µm resolution over a large FOV. Moreover, the usage of GRadient-INdex (GRIN) lenses was investigated. The resolution, field curvature improvement and chromatic performance of the novel device were validated by means of a confocal laser-scanning-microscope.