A luminaire including: at least one light source (2), and an optical system (10, 11, 12a, 12b) for directing and/or distributing the light (5) emitted by the source(s) (2) into a desired output light distribution pattern (7); wherein the optical system comprises one or more optical elements (10, 11, 12a, 12b), the or each said optical element (10, 11, 12a, 12b) comprising a thin foil or sheet substrate having at least one optically functional surface or surface layer thereon or on a portion thereof, and wherein: (i) at least a portion of the at least one optically functional surface or surface layer on the substrate of at least one of the one or more optical elements (10, 11, 12a, 12b) has an at least partially diffractive optical function, and/or (ii) at least a portion of the at least one of the one or more optical elements (10, 11, 12a, 12b) is shaped such that its substrate is configured so as to have a non-flat or non-planar shape in three dimensions.

A method and apparatus for mass production of AR diffractive waveguides. Low-cost mass production of large-area AR diffractive waveguides (slanted surface-relief gratings) of any shape. Uses two-photon polymerization micro-nano 3D printing to realize manufacturing of slanted grating large-area masters of any shape (thereby solving the problem about manufacturing of slanted grating masters of any shape on the one hand, realizing direct manufacturing of large-size wafer-level masters on the other hand, and also having the advantages of low manufacturing cost and high production efficiency). Composite nanoimprint lithography technology is employed (in combination with the peculiar imprint technique and the composite soft mold suitable for slanted gratings) to solve the problem that a large-slanting-angle large-slot-depth slanted grating cannot be demolded and thus cannot be manufactured, and realize the manufacturing of the slanted grating without constraints (geometric shape and size).

A plasma etching method using a Faraday cage, which effectively produces a blazed grating pattern.

An optical structure is provided. The optical structure includes an optical element and a plurality of protrusions. The optical element has a planarized top surface. The plurality of protrusions are disposed on the planarized top surface, wherein each of the plurality of protrusions independently has a size in the subwavelength dimensions.

A method of fabricating an optical element, comprises fabricating a three-dimensional mold having a relief pattern complementary to a pattern of the optical element to be fabricated, contacting the relief pattern with a solidifiable transmissive material, and solidifying the material thereby forming a transmissive substrate having the pattern thereupon. The method also comprises contacting the transmissive substrate with one or more substances wherein a difference in refractive indices between the substance(s) and the transmissive substrate is less than about 0.1.

A diffractive optical element includes: a first material layer that has a diffractive grating shape; and a second material layer that is laminated on the first material layer, the diffractive grating shape forming a plurality of concentric annular ring zones in a plan view from a lamination direction of the first material layer and the second material layer, and a radius of an innermost first ring zone among the plurality of ring zones is less than any one of distances between the ring zones.

A method of manufacturing an optical component having micro-structures is described. The method detects a crystallization temperature within a crystallization temperature interval for fully filling the molding material into a mold cavity to rapidly produce the optical element having a micro-structure with a large area.

The invention concerns a method of manufacturing a modulated optically diffractive grating and a corresponding grating. The method comprises providing a substrate and manufacturing a plurality of temporary elements onto the substrate, the temporary elements being arranged in a periodic pattern comprising at least two periods having different element characteristics. Next, a first deposition layer is deposited so as to at least partially cover the temporary elements with the first deposition layer and the temporary elements are removed from the substrate in order to form onto the substrate a modulated diffractive grating of first grating elements made of the first deposition layer, the pattern comprising within each period a plurality of first grating elements and one more gaps between the first grating elements. The invention allows for producing high-quality gratings with locally varying diffraction efficiency.

Embodiments of the disclosure generally relate to methods of forming gratings. The method includes depositing a resist material on a grating material disposed over a substrate, patterning the resist material into a resist layer, projecting a first ion beam to the first device area to form a first plurality of gratings, and projecting a second ion beam to the second device area to form a second plurality of gratings. Using a patterned resist layer allows for projecting an ion beam over a large area, which is often easier than focusing the ion beam in a specific area.

The present disclosure relates to a method for producing an optical element, for example a lens, for example a headlight lens, for example for vehicle headlights or motor vehicle headlights, wherein an optical component part having an (optically effective) convex surface made of a first transparent optical material is provided and/or produced; a mold having a concave cavity and optical material is provided and/or produced; liquid transparent second optical material is placed into the concave cavity of the mold; and the optical component part having the convexly curved surface is pressed into the concave cavity of the mold such that an optically effective coating is formed on the convexly curved surface.