Fresnel lenses

Abstract

This article contains a description of the discovery of the stepped lenses that today bear Fresnel’s name, based on a monograph written by Fresnel himself in 1822. Although it stands in the shadow of the rest of his activity, in particular the theory of transverse light waves, including polarization, diffraction, and birefringence, this invention could be regarded as a very interesting and very early result of government-sponsored research activity in science and technology, to be used in lighthouses for at least a century, and to remain important in other fields of modern optics.