Deformation of Layered Polymeric Lenses and Glass Lenses under Thermal Loading

Glass has been widely used as the material for optical lenses.In recent years, with advancements in technology, polymers have become candidate materials to replace glass for optical lenses.Polymers are relatively light, cheap, and easy to manufacture.Layered polymeric optical lenses, produced using coextrusion technology, have been reported to have better optical properties than glass lenses.However, polymers have relatively high thermal expansion coefficients.In this paper, comparisons have been conducted on the deformation of layered polymeric lenses and glass lenses under thermal loading.Polymeric lenses are made by alternating layers of two polymers, poly(styrene-co-acrylonitrile) and polymethlymethacrylate. 2D and 3D finite element analysis methods were utilized to obtain responses of the lenses under thermal loading.The results show a significant difference between the two materials.Layered polymeric optical lenses have larger deformation than glass lenses, and the deformation varies with the layer thickness.