Optimum design of permeable diffractive lenses based on photon sieves

Photon sieves are permeable diffractive optical elements generated by open apertures on a substrate. These elements are well suited for the monitoring of running fluids. Our analysis considers the fabrication constrains of the photon sieve and translate them into values of the optical parameters of the element. When used as focusing elements, or diffractive lenses, the spatial distribution of apertures can be designed to maximize the intensity at the focal plane and the permeability of the device. This is done by defining a weighted merit function. The computation time of this merit function is key when applying different strategies for the design, which often require a very large number of calculations of this merit function. Then, besides using a reliable propagation method, we have included an analytic solution applicable for circular apertures. Also, a geometrical merit function is proposed to simplify and reduce the computation even more. The methods proposed in this contribution are compared in terms of the focused irradiance and permeability parameters, allowing an educated choice adapted to the given case or application. In this contribution we analyze several methods to generate photon sieves in an optimum manner. The resulted spatial distributions resemble the classical Fresnel zone arrangement. • Photon sieves are permeable diffractive optical elements. • Photon sieves allow running fluids through optical elements. • Our optimization maximizes the focused irradiance and permeability. • Our geometrical merit function speeds up the calculation by a factor of × 3 . • Several iterative and deterministic designs are compared.