A multifocal intraocular lens (MF-IOL) includes a circularly birefringent material with a right- handed index of refraction nR for a light with a right-handed polarization, and a left-handed index of refraction nI, for a light with a left-handed polarization； and haptics, to position the multifocal intraocular lens inside a capsule of an eye； wherein the multifocal intraocular lens has a right- handed optical power DR for the light with the right-handed polarization, and a left-handed optical power DL for the light with the left-handed polarization, wherein DI/DR=(nL-1)(nR-1). Some variations of the MF-IOL include stimulus-orientable optically anisotropic constituents. Some classes of the MF-IOL include a self-assembling optically anisotropic compound. A corresponding method of a making a MF-IOL is comprising providing stimulus-orientable optically anisotropic constituents as part of an intraocular lens； orienting the optically anisotropic constituents by applying a non-stretching stimulus； and locking-in the oriented optically anisotropic constituents to form the multifocal intraocular lens.
