Future of Leica with new polymer ceramic microwave inventions

[Mustafa Umut Sarac]

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I was OSLO lens design softwares list member and i was looking for a way to manufacture cheap plastic lens with one of the goerz designs. I was knowing very less about the optical polymers and moderator told me that widest available optical polymers - acrylic and polyester - could not reach to the glass refraction level which is approximitaly 1,75 but polymers maximum 1,4.

2 years passed and now i read Japanese companies made polymer and metal oxide matrix and heat it and reach to 2.1. But they say they could not make thick solids because the heating was stressing the matrix and crack it. It is only available for thick coating.

I know the same problem from transparent ceramic laser amps. Lawrence Livermore needs thicker and bigger solids but they could not build it.

Lawrence Livermore writes at its journal - from 2006 - they achived to stick two pieces of ceramic with heat for to get a one thick piece.

I think same technology could be applied to this polymer matrix , may be they can glued with the help of another polymer like epoxy.LL use this epoxy to get better forms from ceramic pieces.

And sintering ceramic powders , i think this could be achived faster and better by microwave sintering.

And polymer and metal oxide matrix only need 300 degrees for to be transparent. I think this is very low degree and can open the new gates for to build new lenses.

And there are more things to come , aspheric lens is a heterogen form and its possible to build heterogen lens material - grin - with changing matrix composition in solid.

I think , with its expensive price and laser glass manufacturing technological background of germany can give the first products of these technologies for lens making.

We will use cheap Leicas If Leica goes to polymer .

Rapid prototyping or production techniques with powders can help this.

 

Best ,

 

Mustafa Umut Sarac

[luigi bertolotti]

I am not directly concerned in the lens technology as You, but I think that almost all PHOTO lenses manufacturers (and probably Leica itself) are looking with attention at the development of polymer and new matrials in general; I specify PHOTO, for lot of lenses are today manufactured with polymers, for spectacles, for other kinds of optical gear (I bought an inexpensive binocular for my daughter: clearly polymer lenses); I think one of the main tech problem is related to the behavior of a complex optical design (6-7...more elements) when exposed to significant temperature gradients in short timecycles: as a practical example that myself have experienced: in a (wonderful !) winter mountaineering day, sunny, your camera can pass from, say, -15 °C to +20 °C in a 2 or 3 hours, and then after to -10 °C in other 4-5 hours...; no problem with a well done metal mount and glass lenses: I think not so sure with plastic lenses : the elements are very finely positioned, and also the internal stresses of a single element can be a potential danger... time ago I red something about in a Scientific American paper by (seem to remember) a Corning Glass scientist...

Anyway, an interesting field for future developments : optical glass is, I think, basically the same by about a century : something from "new materials" in general shall arrive, some day...and if Leica shall continue to exist as a lens manufacturer...we will see.

[Mustafa Umut Sarac]

I am interested in the simulatıon of the "impossible to buy" lenses and its a slow but quite precise method. If you visit ImagEval Consulting LLC and get a copy of iset 2.0 and buy matlab 7.0 and buy zemax or code v optical design software , you can create a summicron effect on your photograph. Patrick Maeda's paper writes that it takes several hours to simulate an lens on very small picture. Maybe , we are one of the few last glass lens using generations. May be they will create lens directly on ccd with self organized nanoparticles. I am not a lens designer like you but i am sourcing laser glass making more than 10 years. Well , lets return to above subject , i think fast computers will make everything different , 10 , 15 years from now , not too much!

[bill]

All very fascinating...

 

But if I want a "Summicron effect" I just use a Summicron. Leica is a small company. They will not lead in this area.

 

Regards,

 

Bill