Surface characterisation of 3D printed lenses for microscopy

We developed a method to 3D print transparent lenses for use in optical instrumentation, with the aim of democratising access to bespoke optics for prototyping and use in low-resource settings. We required a method to accurately calculate the surface curvature, smoothness, and quality in order to determine if our 3D-printed lenses were a viable alternative to their expensive glass counterparts.

We developed, optimised, and applied a super-resolution optical interference method to image the surface of our printed lenses and quantify their curvature and surface quality. This method was implemented with a variety of printed optical elements to assure the quality of and reproducibility of 3D printed optics.