(GRIN)humaneyelens-OSAPublishing.PDFVIP

A bio-inspired polymeric gradient refractive index (GRIN) human eye lens 1 1,2,* 3 4 Shanzuo Ji, Michael Ponting, Richard S. Lepkowicz, Armand Rosenberg, 4 4 1 Richard Flynn, Guy Beadie, and Eric Baer 1Department of Macromolecular Science Engineering, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio 44106, USA 2PolymerPlus LLC, Valley View, Ohio 44125, USA 3Department of Physics and Optical Engineering, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, Terre Haute, Indiana 47803, USA 4Naval Research Laboratory, Code 5616, Washington, DC 20375, USA *mponting@polymerplus.net Abstract: A synthetic polymeric lens was designed and fabricated based on a bio-inspired, “Age=5” human eye lens design by utilizing a nanolayered polymer film-based technique. The internal refractive index distribution of an anterior and posterior GRIN lens were characterized and confirmed against design by µATR-FTIR. 3D surface topography of the fabricated aspheric anterior and posterior lenses was measured by placido-cone topography and exhibited confirmation of the desired aspheric surface shape. Furthermore, the wavefronts of aspheric posterior GRIN and PMMA lenses were measured and simulated by interferometry and Zemax software, respectively. Their results show tha