Patent Application
20230047873
The present invention relates to the field of holographic storage, and particularly relates a lens used in holographic storage, and particularly relates to an optical system for holographic storage and a Fresnel lens or a meta lens thereof.
The common optical storage technology, such as DVD and blue light optical storage, that has been widely used at present, achieves data recording by forming a reflectivity difference with laser thermal effect ablating materials on an optical track. The optical system thereof is required to focus the incident laser light at a certain distance inside the storage medium into a single diffraction-limited converging light spot. The horizontal and vertical dimensions of the light field thereof are about in the order of hundreds of nanometers.
However, holographic storage has many features. In holographic storage, a reference light and a signal light are interfered inside the recording medium to form interference fringes in three-dimensional distribution with a certain volume, and the fringes are recorded inside the photosensitive medium through photochemical reactions. Compared with the common optical storage, two stable light beams are required, so that the optical system of the holographic storage is much complex. In addition, in the optical system of the holographic storage, the field of reference light and signal light generated inside the medium have larger size. Compared with recording by the ablation effect, the light field of the holographic optical storage is required better uniformity to ensure uniform exposure within the range of the light field, which thus has higher requirements for the optical system. According to the holographic storage, the two-dimensional data page image is loaded into the signal light and is recorded into the medium to form a hologram by interfering the signal light with the reference light, the signal light carrying the data information can be reproduced by irradiating the hologram with the reference light, and the two-dimensional data page image is projected onto an image sensor through the optical system. In the whole process, in order to record, reproduce and transmit information of the two-dimensional data page image completely, the optical system is required to have better imaging characteristics, i.e. a larger aperture is required, and it is also required to eliminate large view field aberration of the optical system, such as spherical aberration, chromatic aberration, coma, distortion, field curvature, astigmatism, etc. Accordingly, each optical objective lens in the optical system of the holographic storage is composed of a lens group including a plurality of lenses, which has large volume and mass. Further, in order to ensure that the two light beams are always irradiated at the exact position during process of recording and reproducing hologram, a servo system is thus provided to correct deviation of the light beams relative to the storage medium by moving or rotating one or more lenses or lens group in the optical system in real time. Therefore, it is required that reduction of the volume and mass of the lenses or lens group will not affect the optical performance, so as to ensure the response frequency and response speed in the correction process and reduce aberration in the process of moving or rotating the lens or lens group. The lens or lens group in the holographic storage has much function, for example, the Fourier lens therein is configured for transforming the light field of the two-dimensional data page into a spectral plane to realize holographic recording of Fourier transformation, the objective lens for reference light is configured for focusing the reference light, and the magnification lens is configured for matching the pixel sizes of a spatial light modulator and an image sensor.
As such, the optical system of the holographic storage is more complex, and function of the optical components is much richer. Therefore, in order to realize miniaturization and integration of holographic storage device, optimization and improvement for optical components should be conducted under the requirements of function and performance thereof.
As known, the Fresnel lens can realize convergence or divergence of the incident light beam by phase modulation to the incident light beam using a small curved surface in the shape of an annular band. The meta lens is a kind of special super-surface structure, which is a planar optical element composed of optical nanometer antennae, and can precisely control multiple parameters, such as phase, amplitude and polarization direction of light. Both the Fresnel lens and the meta lens have the advantages of flexible design, small mass, planarization and a compact structure. Accordingly, two-dimensional phase modulation satisfying the aberration elimination property can be obtained through theoretical design or simulation optimization, and the Fresnel lens or the meta lens manufactured according to the phase modulation has an optical performance similar to that of a lens group consisting of a plurality of lenses.
Therefore, it is of great significance to apply the Fresnel lens or the meta lens in the optical system of the holographic storage.
The present invention thus provides an optical system for holographic storage, and a Fresnel lens or meta lens thereof, which is free from the aforesaid drawbacks and can realize miniaturization and integration of the holographic storage system.
The optical system according to the present invention includes a reference light path, a signal light path, a servo light path and a reproduction light path. The reference light path and the signal light path both contains a first Fourier lens and a second Fourier lens for transmitting a reference light and a signal light carrying data information and adjusting the incident position and angle of the reference light and the signal light on a storage medium. The optical system further includes a reference light objective lens for converging the reference light, a third Fourier lens for performing Fourier transformation on a signal light field, and a fourth Fourier lens for performing Fourier transformation on a reproduced signal light field to read the data information. The first Fourier lens, the second Fourier lens, the third Fourier lens, the fourth Fourier lens and the reference light objective lens is respectively composed of a Fresnel lens or a meta lens.
The Fourier lens has the function requirement of transmitting data information completely, while the reference light objective lens requires a higher numerical aperture and a larger working distance, so apertures thereof are larger. Meanwhile, since it is necessary to eliminate the influence of aberration, the Fourier lens and the reference light objective lens are generally a lens group consisting of a plurality of lenses, which are large in both volume and mass. However, it can considerably reduce when designed as the Fresnel lens or the meta lens. On the one hand, the reduction of the volume and mass facilitates miniaturization of the entire holographic optical storage system; on the other hand, it is advantageous to compensate for the expansion or contraction and deviation of an optical disk by controlling the movement of the lens through a servo system. The expansion or contraction of the holographic optical disk includes volume contraction due to polymerization of photopolymer monomers into macromolecules after writing in data and a volume change due to a temperature change, such volume change may cause a change to the holographic grating. The deviation of the optical disk then includes translational deviation in the direction of three axes and angular deviation around the three axes. In order to compensate for the effects of the volume change and the deviation of the holographic optical disk to fully reproduce the stored data information, compensation may be performed by controlling the movement or rotation of the lens, such as the second Fourier lens or other lens on the light path. Moreover, in order to facilitate control and achieve fast response, the volume and mass of these lenses should be reduced as much as possible, accordingly, replacing a conventional lens or lens group with the Fresnel lens and the meta lens is an important or even the unique method.
According to one embodiment, the optical system further includes a servo light calibration lens for calibrating a servo light spot, and the servo light calibration lens is a Fresnel lens or a meta lens.
The servo light calibration lens is used for adjusting the position of a convergence light spot for a servo light. In the light path calibration process, the calibration lens needs to be moved frequently to complete the focusing of the servo light. The Fresnel lens or the meta lens replacing a calibration lens made of an ordinary lens thus can greatly reduce the volume and mass of the lens, and is more conducive to the rapid movement of the calibration lens.
According to one embodiment, the optical system further includes a servo light objective lens for focusing the servo light, and the servo light objective lens is a Fresnel lens or a meta lens.
The configuration of the servo light objective lens is composed of the Fresnel lens or the meta lens can simplify the volume of the lens, reduce the mass of the lens, facilitate the miniaturization and integration of the system, and facilitate the rapid movement of the servo light objective lens.
According to one embodiment of the present invention, the optical system further includes a magnification lens for matching pixel sizes of a spatial light modulator and an image sensor, and the magnification lens is a Fresnel lens or a meta lens.
According to one embodiment of the present invention, the reference light path and the signal light path comprise a beam expanding collimating lens group for performing beam expanding on the reference light and the signal light, and the beam expanding collimating lens group is composed of a Fresnel lens or a meta lens. Such configuration can reduce the volume and facilitate miniaturization and integration of the system.
According to one embodiment of the present invention, the optical system further includes an astigmatic cylindrical lens for detecting the defocus condition of the servo light by astigmatism, and the astigmatic cylindrical lens is a Fresnel lens or a meta lens.
According to one embodiment of the present invention, after the reference light passes through the reference light objective lens, the reference light changes in direction and converges to the signal light at a certain angle.
According to one embodiment of the present invention, after the signal light passes through the third Fourier lens, the signal light changes in direction and converges to the reference light at a certain angle.
In an off-axis optical system, the signal light and the reference light are incident on the holographic optical disk at a certain angle. When a conventional lens or lens group is used as the third Fourier lens and the reference light objective lens, there must be an included angle between the optical axes of the two lights. Such structure may cause that if a servo effect is realized by controlling the two lenses or lens groups, the two lenses or lens groups must move along their respective optical axes, so the movement thereof cannot be realized by using a uniform driving mechanism and cannot be synchronously adjusted. What’s more, it is difficult to use a lens or lens group with a large numerical aperture because the two lenses or lens groups are placed at a certain included angle and the front surfaces thereof cannot be attached to the holographic optical disk at the same time. However, by using the Fresnel lens or the meta lens, the effect of deflecting and converging light beams perpendicularly irradiating the lens in the side direction can be achieved by superimposing an inclined phase, so that the third Fourier lens and the reference light objective lens can be placed on the same plane side by side. In the case where both the signal light and the reference light perpendicularly irradiate the two lenses, the transmitted signal light and the transmitted reference light can superimpose and interfere with each other on the holographic optical disk at a certain angle. Thus, the movement of the two lenses in the same direction can be synchronously adjusted, and both of the two lenses can be attached to the holographic optical disk at a close distance to achieve a high numerical aperture.
The present invention further provides a design method for a Fresnel lens and a meta lens used in the optical system for holographic storage mentioned above, which includes the following steps:
According to the present invention, the Fresnel lens or the meta lens is designed by extracting the phase distribution of a common lens group in the optical system for holographic storage. Since the phase distribution is extracted from the common lens group in the optical system holographic, the designed Fresnel lens or meta lens is highly matched with the lens or lens group required in the optical system, and thus can be used alone to replace the corresponding lens or lens group. The Fresnel lens or meta lens itself has the advantages of small thickness, small mass, strong convergence ability, high functional integration degree and low quantitative production cost, which is beneficial for solving the technical problems that the structure is complicated and servo control is difficult caused by the large number of optical elements applied in the holographic optical system and the large required aperture.
For the Fresnel lens, the step S3 in the above-mentioned design method is specifically includes dividing the phase distribution by m·2π and taking the remainder to obtain a compressed phase distribution, wherein m is 5-50, and designing the Fresnel lens according to the obtained compressed phase distribution and the formula
wherein n is the refractive index of the material of the Fresnel lens, n0 is the refractive index of an environmental medium, φis the phase modulation distribution of the Fresnel lens for incident parallel light beams, λ is the wavelength of incident light, and h is the thickness of any point on the refractive surface of an annular band relative to the lowest point thereof.
For the meta lens, the step S3 in the above-mentioned design method is specifically includes designing nanometer antennae and a layout thereof according to the phase distribution to obtain the meta lens. The meta lens of the present invention achieves phase regulation and control by plasmon resonance or dielectric resonance. The light is coupled to an electromagnetic wave propagating back and forth along the surface or inside of the nanometer antenna so as to regulate and control the transmitted or reflected light by an oscillating mode on the nanometer antenna. For a single nanometer antenna, the phase of the light wave can be changed by adjusting its shape, size, inclination angle, etc.
Some light paths require the Fresnel lens or the meta lens to have a deflection effect, for example, after passing through the reference light objective lens which is composed of the Fresnel lens or the meta lens, the reference light changes in direction and converges to the direction of the signal light at a certain angle; or after passing through the third Fourier lens, which is composed of the Fresnel lens or the meta lens, the signal light changes in direction and converges to the direction of the reference light at a certain angle.
For a light path requiring the Fresnel lens or the meta lens to have the deflection effect, the design method for such Fresnel lens or meta lens includes the following steps:
For a deflection Fresnel lens, the step R3 in the above-mentioned design method is specifically includes dividing the deflection lens phase distribution by m·2π and taking the remainder to obtain a compressed deflection lens phase distribution, wherein m is 5-50; and designing the Fresnel lens according to the obtained compressed deflection lens phase distribution and the formulah
wherein n is the refractive index of the material for making the Fresnel lens, n0 is the refractive index of an environmental medium, φis the phase modulation distribution of the Fresnel lens for incident parallel light beams, λ is the wavelength of incident light, and h is the thickness of any point on the refractive surface of an annular band relative to the lowest point thereof.
For a deflection meta lens, the step R3 in the above-mentioned design method is specifically includes designing nanometer antennae and a layout thereof according to the deflection lens phase distribution to obtain the meta lens.
The Fresnel lens or the meta lens in the present invention can replace an optical element in an on-axis optical system, can also replace an optical element in an off-axis optical system, and can also replace an optical element for holographic storage where a reference light path partially overlaps with a signal light path.
The present invention can obtain the beneficial effects as follows.
According to the present invention, The Fresnel lens or the meta lens is used as the optical element in the optical system for holographic storage, so that the lens surface structure can be designed with a large degree of freedom. The performance of the lens can be continuously optimized through theoretical design or simulation design, so that the lens with a high optical performance can be obtained more easily.
According to the present invention, the Fresnel lens or the meta lens has small volume and small mass, so that it is easier to realize miniaturization and integration of holographic optical storage device on the premise of satisfying the function and performance of the lens.
According to the present invention, the Fresnel lens or the meta lens has small volume and small mass, so that it is more conducive to control the lens by the servo drive system, which achieves fast movement or rotation to compensate for the volume change or deviation of the optical disk.
According to the present invention, the Fresnel lens or the meta lens is designed by extracting the lens phase distribution of a common lens group in the holographic optical storage light path system. Since the lens phase distribution is extracted from the common lens group in optical system, the designed Fresnel lens or meta lens is highly matched with the lens or lens group required in the optical system, which thus can be used alone to replace the corresponding lens or lens group. The Fresnel lens or meta lens itself has the advantages of small thickness, small mass, strong convergence ability, high functional integration degree and low quantitative production cost, which is beneficial for solving the technical problems that the structure is complicated and servo control is difficult caused by the large number of optical elements applied in the holographic optical system and the large required aperture.
An optical system for holographic storage containing a Fresnel lens or a meta lens is provided according to at least one embodiment. Referring to
The optical system further includes a reference light objective lens 50 for converging the reference light, a third Fourier lens 30 for performing Fourier transformation on a signal light field, a fourth Fourier lens 40 for performing Fourier transformation on a reproduced signal light field to read the data information, a magnification lens 70 for matching pixel sizes of a spatial light modulator and an image sensor, a servo light objective lens 50 for focusing a servo light, a servo light calibration lens 60 for calibrating a servo light spot, an astigmatic cylindrical lens 80 for detecting defocusing condition of the servo light by astigmatism, a beam expanding collimating lens group 90 for performing beam expanding on the reference light and the signal light, and a spatial light modulator 100 for loading the data information onto the signal light.
The first Fourier lens 10 and the second Fourier lens 20 are composed of a Fresnel lens or a meta lens according to at least one embodiment. As shown in
As shown in
Referring to
According to one preferable embodiment, the servo light calibration lens 60 is a Fresnel lens or a meta lens.
The servo light calibration lens 60 is configured for adjusting the position of a convergence light spot of the servo light. In the calibration process, the servo light calibration lens 60 needs to be frequently moved to complete the focusing of the servo light. The Fresnel lens or the meta lens in place of the common calibration lens thus can greatly reduce the volume and mass of the lens, which is more conducive to rapid movement of the servo light calibration lens 60.
According to one preferable embodiment, the servo light objective lens 50 is a Fresnel lens or a meta lens. As shown in
The configuration of the servo light objective lens 50 being a Fresnel lens or a meta lens simplifies the volume of the lens, reduces the mass of the lens, facilitates miniaturization and integration of the system, and facilitates rapid movement of the servo light objective lens.
According to one preferable embodiment, the magnification lens 70 is a Fresnel lens or a meta lens.
According to one preferable embodiment, the beam expanding collimating lens group is composed of a Fresnel lens or a meta lens, which reduces the volume and facilitates miniaturization and integration of the system.
According to one preferable embodiment, the astigmatic cylindrical lens 80 is a Fresnel lens or a meta lens.
The Fresnel lens or the meta lens may also be applicable to an on-axis optical system for holographic storage. As shown in
The Fresnel lens or the meta lens may also be applicable to other off-axis optical system for holographic storage. As shown in
For the Fresnel lens, the step S3 specifically includes dividing the phase distribution by m·2π and taking the remainder to obtain a compressed phase distribution. The larger the value of m, the less the order of the Fresnel lens (i.e. the less the number of the annular band), the wider the annular band, and the greater the thickness of the annular band; the smaller the value of m, the greater the order of the Fresnel lens (i.e. the greater the number of the annular band), the narrower the annular band, and the smaller the thickness of the annular band. However, when the value of m is too large or too small, it is difficult to manufacture the Fresnel lens. The value of m in this embodiment is 5-50. Designing the Fresnel lens according to the obtained compressed phase distribution and the formula
wherein n is the refractive index of the material of the Fresnel lens, n0 is the refractive index of an environmental medium, φis the phase modulation distribution of the Fresnel lens for incident parallel light beams, λ is the wavelength of incident light, and h is the thickness of any point on the refractive surface of the annular band relative to the lowest point thereof.
For the meta lens, the step S3 specifically includes designing the nanometer antennae and a layout thereof according to the phase distribution to obtain the meta lens. The meta lens of the present invention achieves phase regulation and control by plasmon resonance or dielectric resonance. The light is coupled to an electromagnetic wave propagating back and forth along the surface or inside of the nanometer antenna so as to regulate and control the transmitted or reflected light by an oscillating mode on the nanometer antenna. The optical nanometer antennae of the meta lens may be nano-structures such as holes, slits or protrusions. The optical meta lens can regulate and control the amplitude, phase, polarization and transmission spectrum of light in the sub-wavelength range through the interaction of the nanostructure unit with light.
For a deflection Fresnel lens, the step R3 specifically includes dividing the deflection lens phase distribution by m·2π and taking the remainder to obtain a compressed deflection lens phase distribution. The larger the value of m, the less the order of the Fresnel lens (i.e. the less the number of the annular band), the wider the annular band, and the greater the thickness of the annular band; the smaller the value of m, the greater the order of the Fresnel lens (i.e. the greater the number of the annular band), the narrower the annular band, and the smaller the thickness of the annular band. However, when the value of m is too large or too small, it is difficult to manufacture the Fresnel lens. The value of m in this embodiment is 5-50. The Fresnel lens is designed according to the obtained compressed deflection lens phase distribution and the formula
wherein n is the refractive index of the material for making the Fresnel lens, n0 is the refractive index of an environmental medium, φis the phase modulation distribution of the Fresnel lens for incident parallel light beams, λ is the wavelength of incident light, and h is the thickness of any point on the refractive surface of the annular band relative to the lowest point thereof.
For a deflection meta lens, the step R3 specifically includes designing nanometer antennae and a layout thereof according to the deflection lens phase distribution to obtain the meta lens. The meta lens of the present invention achieves phase regulation and control by plasmon resonance or dielectric resonance. The light is coupled to an electromagnetic wave propagating back and forth along the surface or inside of the nanometer antenna to regulate and control the transmitted or reflected light by an oscillating mode on the nanometer antenna. The optical nanometer antennae constituting the meta lens may be nano-structures such as holes, slits or protrusions. The optical meta lens can regulate and control the amplitude, phase, polarization and transmission spectrum of light in the sub-wavelength range through the interaction of the nanostructure unit with light.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 202110924740.4 | Aug 2021 | CN | national |
The present application claims priority from Chinese Patent Application No. 202110924740.4 filed on Aug. 12, 2021, all of which are hereby incorporated herein by reference.
