Freeform Optics for Imaging and Metaform Optics in Near-Eye Displays

Jannick Rolland

(University of Rochester)


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Date: November 3, 2021

Description:

Freeform optics has set a new path for optical system design across a wide range of applications spanning from microscopy to space optics, including the billion $ consumer market of near-eye displays for augmented reality that set us on this technology path in the first place. Today, freeform optics have been demonstrated to yield compact, achromatic, and high-performance imaging systems that are poised to enable the science of tomorrow. This talk will introduce freeform optics and highlight emerging design methods. We will then present success stories in digital-viewfinder, imager, and spectrometer designs, which we anticipate will ignite discussion and stimulate cooperation in enabling knowledge in freeform optics. Building on this foundation, we will introduce the concept of a metaform to address a need in near-eye displays.

Further Information:

Jannick Rolland is the Brian J. Thompson Professor in Optical Engineering at the University of Rochester. She is the co-founder and CTO of LighTopTech a startup on 3D high-definition microscopy. She is the director of the Center for Freeform Optics (CeFO) supported by the National Science Foundation in the U.S. and corporations worldwide. The Center for Freeform Optics (CeFO) is a collaborative consortium for industry/university cooperative research that is vertically integrated from mathematics to precision optical manufacturing (fabrication and testing) of freeform optics in order to transform the optics of the 21st century.  She earned an optical engineering diploma from the Institut D’Optique Théorique et Appliquée, France, and an M.S. and Ph.D. in optical science from the College of Optical Sciences at the University of Arizona. Professor Rolland is a Fellow of OSA, SPIE, EUAS, and NAI. She is the recipient of the 2014 OSA David Richardson Medal, the 2017 Edmund A. Hajim Outstanding Faculty Award, the University of Arizona College of Optical Sciences 2019 Alumna of the Year Award, a 2019 Engineer of Distinction by the Rochester Engineering Society, and the recipient of the 2020 Joseph Fraunhofer Award / Robert M. Burley Prize.




Created: Monday, November 8th, 2021