But just like an overly large pinhole won't form a good image on its own, and does a great job of "tightening up" an image when it's inserted in the correct place as an aperture; so a Diffractive Optical Element does a great job as a "super-high dispersion element" in the right place in a complex lens designed with just such an element. A DOE has very little thickness so the refractive index is "virtual", but the dispersion is very high and easily controllable.
Ole , I am understanding from your text that doe is zone plate ? I read a patent which describes a achromatic lens made by two doe or as you said with two zoneplates. Is it possible to form other negative curve lens elements with doe - zone plate - couples ?
The most important question , is it possible to form a complex lens only with multilayer zoneplates with the quality of professional lens ? a lens for to cover 1,5 square meters wide glass negative ?