Functional Ordinary Differential Equations and the Design of Dichromatic Lenses

This paper establishes an existence and uniqueness theorem for a class of functional ordinary differential equations under assumptions weaker than those found in the literature. We then consider the problem of designing a lens that refracts rays of two distinct frequencies emitted from a point source into a common collimated beam. We derive a system of functional ordinary differential equations whose solvability characterizes the existence of such lenses. Using the existence theorem, we prove that such a lens exists in two dimensions. We then extend the corresponding result to three dimensions.