Method for manufacturing optical element

Abstract

A method for manufacturing an optical element includes heating an optical material up to a first temperature that is higher than a transition point, pressurizing the optical material using a first mold and a second mold that are situated opposite to each other across the optical material, first cooling the optical material down to a second temperature that is higher than a strain point and lower than the first temperature while pressurizing the optical material with a predetermined load using the first mold and the second mold, releasing the predetermined load at a set speed that is higher than or equal to a speed obtained in advance, at which an elastic deformation occurs preferentially over a viscous deformation in the optical material upon releasing a load, and second cooling the optical material down to a third temperature that is lower than the second temperature.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.