Method for modifying the refractive index of an optical material and resulting optical vision component

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9939558-B2
Application number	US-201514849058-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 9, 2015
Priority date	Jun 2, 2011
Publication date	Apr 10, 2018
Grant date	Apr 10, 2018

Abstract

A method for modifying the refractive index of an optical polymeric material. The method comprises continuously irradiating predetermined regions of an optical, polymeric material with femtosecond laser pulses to form a gradient index refractive structure within the material. The optical polymeric material can include a photosensitizer to increase the photoefficiency of the two-photo process resulting in the formation of the observed refractive structures. An optical device includes an optical, polymeric lens material having an anterior surface and posterior surface and an optical axis intersecting the surfaces and at least one laser-modified, GRIN layer disposed between the anterior surface and the posterior surface and arranged along a first axis 45° to 90° to the optical axis. The at least one laser-modified GRIN layer comprises a plurality of adjacent refractive segments characterized by a variation in index of refraction across at least one of at least a portion of the adjacent segments and along each segment.

First claim

We claim:

1. An optical device, comprising:
an optical, polymeric lens material having an anterior surface and posterior surface and an optical axis intersecting the surfaces; and
at least one laser-modified, GRIN layer disposed between the anterior surface and the posterior surface, wherein the at least one laser-modified GRIN layer comprises a plurality of adjacent refractive segments having a change in the index of refraction in relation to the index of refraction of non-modified polymeric material formed with continuous streams of light pulses from a laser continuously scanned along regions of the polymeric material, wherein the plurality of adjacent refractive segments each have an independent line width and an intersegment spacing of two adjacent refractive segments is less than an average line width of the two adjacent segments so that there is overlap of the adjacent segments, and the GRIN layer is characterized by a variation in index of refraction in a direction of at least one of: (i) a transverse cross section of the adjacent refractive segments; and (ii) a lateral cross section of the refractive segments.

2. The optical device of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of adjacent refractive segments are line segments.

3. The optical device of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of adjacent refractive segments are arcuate or curved segments.

4. The optical device of claim 1 , wherein the polymeric lens material includes a photosensitizer.

5. The optical device of claim 4 , wherein the photosensitizer comprises at least one two photon absorption chromophore having a two-photon cross-section of at least 10 GM between 750 nm and 1100 nm.

6. The optical device of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of adjacent refractive segments of each GRIN layer have an independent line width of one to five μm and the intersegment spacing of two adjacent segments is less that an average linewidth of the two adjacent segments.

7. The optical device of claim 1 , wherein the change in the index of refraction is a constant positive change in the index of refraction along at least one of the transverse cross section of refractive segments.

8. The optical device of claim 1 , wherein the change in the index of refraction is a constant rate of increasing or decreasing positive change in the index of refraction along at least one of the transverse cross section of refractive segments, and along the lateral cross section of refractive segments.

9. The optical device of claim 1 , wherein the polymeric lens material is a hydrogel.

10. The optical device of claim 9 , wherein the device is selected from a contact lens, an intraocular lens or a corneal inlay.

11. The optical device of claim 1 , wherein the at least one laser-modified, GRIN layer is arranged along a first axis 45° to 135° to the optical axis.

12. The optical device of claim 1 , wherein the at least one laser-modified, GRIN layer comprises a first laser modified, GRIN layer arranged along a first axis 45° to 135° to the optical axis, and further comprising two to ten laser modified, GRIN layers arranged either above or below the first laser modified, GRIN layer along a second axis substantially parallel to the first axis.

13. The optical device of claim 12 , wherein the polymeric lens material includes a photosensitizer, and the photosensitizer comprises at least one two-photon absorption chromophore having a two-photon cross-section of at least 10 GM between 750 nm and 1100 nm.

14. The optical device of claim 1 , wherein the GRIN layer exhibits little or no scattering loss.

15. The optical device of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of adjacent refractive segments are concentric segments outwardly projected from a central point.

16. The optical device of claim 1 , wherein the GRIN layer has a quadratic profile.

17. The optical device of claim 1 , wherein the GRIN layer has a thickness from 2 to 10 μm (microns).

18. The optical device of claim 1 , wherein the GRIN layer has a parabolic gradient index profile.

19. The optical device of claim 1 , wherein the GRIN layer has a change in refractive index of between 0.01 and 0.04 compared to the index of refraction of the non-modified material.

20. The optical device of claim 1 , comprising a plurality of laser modified, GRIN layers and wherein the plurality of GRIN layers provide an accumulated phase difference of a or greater for a design wavelength of the optical device.

21. The optical device of claim 1 , wherein the GRIN layer comprises a grating structure.

22. The optical device of claim 1 , wherein the GRIN layer comprises a convex, cylinder, plano or concave structure.

Assignees

• Univ Rochester

Inventors

• Knox Wayne H
• Jani Dharmendra
• Ding Li

Classifications

• A61L27/52

  Hydrogels or hydrocolloids · CPC title

• A61L27/50

  Materials characterised by their function or physical properties {, e.g. injectable or lubricating compositions, shape-memory materials, surface modified materials} · CPC title

• A61L27/16

  obtained by reactions only involving carbon-to-carbon unsaturated bonds · CPC title

• A61F2/1618

  Multifocal lenses · CPC title

• G02C2202/12

  Locally varying refractive index, gradient index lenses · CPC title