Currently, in the field of optical design, there is great interest in assessing the complexity of an optical system prior to its actual design. In this paper, we propose a method that can estimate complexity by predicting the number of optical surfaces in a lens required to achieve diffraction-limited image quality. We show that it is sufficient to select the proper number of pupil points, field, and wavelength range to estimate aberration values at the design stage. Each control point corresponds to a ray passing through the optical system. The coordinates of the intersection of the input ray with the image plane are a function of the input ray and the parameters of the optical system. Thus, we can construct a system of equations from the functions of each control point. A solution exists when the number of variables (design parameters) is equal to the number of equations (control points). The basic idea is to determine the required number of control points of the field, pupil, and wavelength range, which gives us the number of design parameters. We have plotted empirical diagram for common combinations of focal length (F'), F-number (F#), field-of-view (FOV), and wavelength range. This information can be used to determine the desired number of control points and therefore to assess the complexity of the optical system being designed. Taking into account the geometric constraints and the variety of optical materials, the result of this method cannot be final, but it can be considered as a preliminary estimate of the complexity of the optical system.
For solar observations high-resolved spectral instruments are most often used. Many scientific tasks require high spatial resolution along with high spectral one, which, in practice, might be reached through applying the integral field spectroscopy (IFS). In this paper, the ways of the mirror integral field unit (IFU) design for the Solar Telescope- Coronagraph are discussed. The telescope’s main mirror diameter is equal to 3 m, the focal length is 40 m, the spectral range is 0.39 – 1.60 microns. The entrance angular optical field size is 0.75′′ x 12′′, which corresponds to the linear one of 0.145 mm x 2.327 mm at the telescope focal plane. The optical system design of an image slicer is presented. The possibility of the IFU (input NA = 0.0375) development, which cuts the entrance optical field from the telescope into 8 slices, is shown. The size of the final slit is 0.094′′ x 96′′ (0.018 mm x 18.617 mm), which provides 0.1′′ resolution limit.
We describe the method for optical design of afocal achromatic systems that keep their characteristics stable in a wide thermal range without refocusing. Usually, thermal stabilization of the back focal length of an optical system is considered, but these methods are not directly applicable for afocal systems. The method proposed is based on the idea of using a proper combination of optical materials and powers of optical elements to keep the whole system as an afocal one in the desired temperature range. As an additional advantage, the method has shown that afocal systems have enough parameters to achieve achromatic correction and may take into account the F-number of optical elements, which is important for the aberration balance. The research presents both theoretical statements and the example of a laser beam expander for dual wavelengths. The method can also be used to design afocal achromatic compensators that help to achieve thermal stability.
The work associates with the catadioptric systems with two-component afocal achromatic compensator. The most catadioptric systems with afocal compensator have the power mirror part and the correctional lens part. The correctional lens part can be in parallel, in convergent beam or in both. One of the problems of such systems design is the thermal defocus by reason of the thermal aberration and the housing thermal expansion. We introduce the technique of thermal defocus compensation by choosing the optical material of the afocal compensator components. The components should be made from the optical materials with thermo-optical characteristics so after temperature changing the compensator should become non-afocal with the optical power enough to compensate the image plane thermal shift. Abbe numbers of the components should also have certain values for correction chromatic aberrations that reduces essentially the applicable optical materials quantity. The catalogues of the most vendors of optical materials in visible spectral range are studied for the purpose of finding the suitable couples for the technique. As a result, the advantages and possibilities of the plastic materials application in combination with optical glasses are shown. The examples of the optical design are given.
Access to the requested content is limited to institutions that have purchased or subscribe to SPIE eBooks.
You are receiving this notice because your organization may not have SPIE eBooks access.*
*Shibboleth/Open Athens users─please
sign in
to access your institution's subscriptions.
To obtain this item, you may purchase the complete book in print or electronic format on
SPIE.org.
INSTITUTIONAL Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.
PERSONAL Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.