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A 40-deg full field-of-view high-performance eyepiece design utilizing a polymer spherical gradient-index (GRIN) optical element is presented. In the design process, the GRIN lens material is constrained to current manufacturing capabilities. Several spherical GRIN lens blanks are fabricated from a thermoformable axial GRIN polymethyl methacrylate polystyrene copolymer material. One is diamond turned into a lens for the eyepiece, and the additional blanks are used to characterize the fabrication process. The spherical GRIN profile is evaluated in the original design, and a tolerance analysis is provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Radial and spherical polymer gradient-index (GRIN) eyepiece designs are presented. The chromatic behavior of GRIN profiles is constrained to real material properties of a polymethyl methacrylate polystyrene copolymer gradient-index system. Single-element, two-element, and multielement eyepiece design configurations each demonstrate significant spot diameter and modulation transfer function performance improvements with the use of a GRIN element. A high-performance spherical GRIN eyepiece design, with 48-deg full field-of-view and 3% distortion, is compared to a similar homogeneous glass solution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]