METHOD FOR MANUFACTURING OPTICAL ELEMENT

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a method for manufacturing an optical element that can shorten a manufacturing period by correcting a molding die before annealing. SOLUTION: In the method for manufacturing an optical element, a raw material for molding the optical element is softened by heating, press molded and hardened by cooling using a molding die, and the obtained optical element before annealing is annealed. The method includes a predicted-shape calculation step for measuring an optical surface shape of the raw material for molding the optical element before annealing after press molding and predicting a shape after annealing from the measured shape before annealing, a corrected-shape calculation step for comparing the optical surface shape obtained in the predicted-shape calculation step with the optical surface shape of the final optical element to be manufactured and determining a corrected shape by calculating the difference thereof, and a molding-die correction step for correcting and processing the molding die based on the corrected shape obtained in the corrected-shape calculation step. The optical element is subjected again to press molding using the molding die obtained in the molding-die correction step. COPYRIGHT: (C)2011,JPO&INPIT