2009 Class Summary Essay - Vineeth Abraham

OPTI 517 Lens Design
Course Summary
Vineeth Abraham
College of Optical Sciences
University of Arizona
09 December 2009
OPTI 517 Lens Design: Course Summary
Contents
Chapter Page
1 - What is Imaging 3
2 - First order Optics 4
3 - Overview of Aberrations
6
4 - Reading Aberrations
10
5 - Chromatic Aberrations
16
6 - Diffractive Optical Elements (DOE)

20
7 - Image Quality
22
8 - Classical Lenses 26
9 - Tolerancing 29
College of Optical Sciences, University of Arizona 2

References 31
Chapter 1
What is Imaging?
Maxwellian Definition:
Every ray from a point of the object must converge to or diverge

from a single point after passing through the system
Image of a plane object normal to the axis will also be
perpendicular to the axis
Image in that plane will be similar to the object
Collinear Transformation Definition:
Defines imaging as a one-to-one mapping between object and

image spaces
The mappings are
a1 X + b1Y + c1Z + d1 a2 X + b2Y + c2 Z + d 2 a3 X + b3Y + c3 Z + d 3

X '= Y'= Z'=
a0 X + b0Y + c0 Z + d 0 a0 X + b0Y + c0 Z + d 0 a0 X + b0Y + c0 Z + d 0
These are simplified for 1-D and 2-D cases (projection of a point
to a point and a line to a line)
a1;X a1 X a2Y
X '= X '= Y'=
a0 X + b0 a0 X + b0Y + c0 a0 X + b0Y + c0
Symmetry: The collinear transformation equations are greatly simplified by

assuming symmetries in the system. Plane symmetry
(symmetric about the YZ plane) and Double plane symmetries
(symmetric about both YZ and XZ planes) simplifies the system.
The Axial symmetry case is the most useful. In axially symmetric
systems, and z' are functions of and z. Assuming origins are
Z 1 ρ' 1 Z' ρ Z' f' f
= 1− m= = 1− m m = 1− + =1
f m 1− Z \ f f' f' Z' Z
at the principal planes, we obtain the Gaussian equations.
; ; ;
;
Assuming origins at the focal points gives the Newtonian

equations.
Z 1 ; ZZ ' = ff ' ; Z'

=- =-m
f m f'
Scheimpflug Condition: When the object plane is not perpendicular to the
axis, the image plane is also tilted in an axially symmetric
system. The tilts of the object and image planes are related by
the Scheimpflug Condition, tan(θ ') - Z'\Z tan(θ ) = 0.
Chapter 2
First order Optics

In all current design works, both the paraxial and real rays are traced by
computer programs. But paraxial raytracing is still used in many design
tasks since it gives us substantial information about the system by tracing
just two paraxial rays, the chief ray and the marginal ray. Hence it is
important to learn first order optics.
Paraxial Image Formation
In the paraxial region, Snell’s law is given by: n i = n’ i’

Using this relation, we can write the power of a surface as: ϕ = (n’ – n)C =
(n'-n)r
The unit of power is Diopters.
This allows us to write the equations of a refracted paraxial ray in the form:
n’u’ = nu – yϕ Refraction equation

y’ = y + u’t’ Transfer equation
Using these equations for an arbitrary point located at z in object space and
its image z’ in the image space, we obtain the relations,
n'z' + nz = ∅
And the relations for the front and back focal distances are,

f’ = n'∅ and f = - n∅
Also, Transverse magnification, m=nn' z'z
Invariants
Optical Invariants are quantities that are non-changing on refraction and

transfer. These are given by,
n’u’y – n’u’y = nuy - nuy Invariant on Refraction
n’u’yτ – n’u’yτ = nuy - nuy Invariant on Transfer
In the above equations, the two rays are arbitrary. But when these rays are
the Marginal and Chief rays, the invariant is called the Legrange Invariant. It
is denoted as,
Ж = nuy – nuy
The Aperture Stop
A stop in the system that limits the amount of light passing through the
system is called the aperture stop. The image of this aperture stop in object
space is called the Entrance pupil and the image in image space is called the
Exit pupil. The aperture stop introduces order into the system by controlling
stray light and unwanted fields.
Also, in any system, the exit pupil is an important point of
consideration since it is the ideal point to define wavefront deformation and
diffraction effects are minimized at this point.

Cardinal Points
The main cardinal points used in optical systems are:

Focal points: Conjugates of the infinite points. Conjugate of infinity in object
space is the rear focal point (F’) and conjugate of infinity in image space is
the front focal point (F).
Nodal points: They are conjugate points that are the centers of perspective.
A ray passing through one nodal point will pass through the other nodal
point too (N and N’)
Principal points: They are conjugate points too of unit magnification (P and
P’)

Chapter 3
Overview of Aberrations
Aberrations are interesting phenomenon which can help in design of
optical systems. Aberrations can be looked into using ray and wave
approach. The wave approach helps to understand superposition of errors
more easily.
Aberrations are caused due to the deformation of the ideal wavefronts.
Ideally wavefronts are spherical and homocentric. Hence, wavefront
deformation is measured as the distance between the reference wavefront
and the aberrated wavefront along the actual ray path at the exit pupil.
Now if we look at on-axis images, we realize that our system is axially

symmetric. So we can have only quadratic and 4th order terms in the
aberration. These two terms give rise to Focus and Spherical aberrations,
which are only on-axis aberrations possible.
But when we go off-axis, we reduce our symmetry to plane
symmetry and brings up the other basic aberrations.
Wave Aberration Function
The wave aberration function is a function of the scalar product of the

field and aperture vectors expressed in the form,
W(H,ρ,cosθ) = k,l,mWk,l,m Hk ρl cosmθ

The various aberration functions are also called Seidel sums since they were
defined by Seidel. They are:
Spherical
Aberration
Coma ------------------
Astigmatism ---------
Field Curvature -----
Distortion ------------
Axial Chromatic Aberration ∂λ W020 = 12 CL C L = Ay ∆(∂nn) and

∆(∂nn) = n-1ν n
Longitudinal C A ∂λ W111 = CT CT = Ay ∆(∂nn) and ∆(∂nn)
= n-1ν n
The variables used in the equation are,

A = nu +nyc = ni
A = nu + nyc = n i and c = 1r
P = c ∆(1n)
ν = (nd- 1)(nf- nc)
Aspheric Surfaces
Aspheric surfaces can be considered as caps on the spherical surface. So the

aberrations contributed by aspheric surfaces can be modeled separately.
The nett aberration will be calculated as the sum of the aberrations by the
spherical surface and the aspheric cap.
The aberration contributions by the aspheric cap is given by,

Stop shifting
Stop shifting refers to changing the position of the stop from the element to
another point along the optical axis, but at the same time, changing the size
of the stop to maintain the f-number of the system.
Changing the stop position affects the off-axis aberrations. The variation of
aberrations with stop shifting is given by,
Here, δy is calculated at the original stop position for convenience since

here, the initial y will be zero and hence δy = y after stop shifting.
Structural coefficients
This is when the Seidel aberration coefficients are written in terms of y, the
marginal ray height at the principal plane, ∅, the power and ℵ, the Legrange
invariant. σ are the structural coefficients.
For a thin lens, these can be written as,
Bending of a lens

Bending is the process by which the power of the lens is maintained but the
shape factor, X as defined above, is varied. This is useful since the
aberrations depend on the shape factor. For example, spherical aberration is
a quadratic function of the shape factor and coma is a linear function.
Bending of a lens

Chapter 4
Reading Aberrations
Since the lens design programs display the performance of the system using
OPD curves, it is very important that the user should know what the
aberrations are from the OPD curves. The good thing about wave fans is that
knowing the aberrations in terms of the waves helps to identify the
diffraction limits very easily. The shape and nature of the various fourth-
order aberrations are as given below:
W020 Defocus
Defocus is a second order aberration and is caused due to the rays coming
to focus at different points along the optical axis from different points in the
aperture. Thus it is a variation of focal length with aperture. It does not have
any field dependence.
W020 ∝ ρ2
The wave fan shape for 1 wave of defocus is shown below.
All pictures courtesy of Sample report by

Matthew Lang
W111 Tilt
This term represents the tilt in the image plane and has a linear dependence
on Field and Aperture.
W111 ∝ H ρ cosθ

W040 Spherical Aberration
Spherical aberration (SA) is a fourth order aberration caused by the variation

of focal length with aperture and it has a quadratic dependence on the
aperture and varies as the third power of optical power. Spherical aberration
and Defocus are the only aberrations that are possible on-axis.
W040 ∝ ρ4
Correction of Spherical Aberration

➢ Focus can be used to compensate spherical aberration. But this makes
the system very sensitive since the depth of focus becomes very
shallow.
➢ Splitting the lens – Since SA varies as the third power of optical power, it
can be reduced by splitting the lens. By splitting a lens into two equal
halves, we reduce the power by half and the SA to a quarter.
➢ Bending the lens – Since SA is a quadratic function of the shape factor of
the lens, contro; of SA is also done by varying the shape factor by
keeping the power constant, which is known as lens bending.
➢ Refractive index – A higher refractive index means the lens can afford to
have lesser curvature for a constant power. Thus a smaller curvature
translates to lesser SA.
➢ Aplanatic surface – An aplanatic surface is a surface which satisfies the
condition, ∆(un) = 0. As a result SA will be zero as this term is present in
the seidel sum expression of SA.
➢ Merte Surface – A merte surface is a system with a strong index break
and a strong radius of curvature. But the system has nearly no optical
power.
➢ Using an aspheric surface - An aspheric surface with a conic constant
equal to the index of refraction of the medium can completely remove
SA.
➢ Meniscus lens – A meniscus lens with nearly zero power can bend the
rays at the edge of the pupil outwards which helps to counter the effect
of spherical aberration.

W131 Coma
Coma is an off-axis aberration and is caused by the variation of

magnification with pupil position. The field and aperture dependence is given
by,
W111 ∝ H ρ3 cosθ
From the seidel sum expression, we can deduce the ways to eliminate coma.
Correction of Coma
➢ Stop location – Placing the stop at the natural stop position eliminates
coma. It uses the fact that y=0 at the stop position. At the natural stop
position, y=0 for both on-axis and off-axis beams.
➢ A or A can be made zero by having the surface concentric to wavefront.
Under both of these conditions, coma will be zero.
➢ Coma will be eliminated also if ∆un= 0, which means the surface is
aplanatic.
These four cases are shown in figure below, where, B = A
➢ Bending is another method for reduction of coma.

Abbe Sine Condition – Abbe proposed that the condition for zero coma is
that the paraxial magnification be equal to the real ray marginal
magnification since coma can be considered as variation of magnification
with pupil position. This can be formed into an expression as shown below.
uu' = sinUsinU' where u and u’ are the paraxial ray angles and U and
U’ are the real ray angles
W222 Astigmatism
Astigmatism is a non-axially symmetric aberration since it has different

aberration characteristics along the two axes (tangential and sagittal).
Astigmatism results in the image coming to focus at two different points for
the tangential and sagittal fields. As a result we get two field curves. When
the tangential and Sagittal field curves are separated, we can say that there
is Astigmatism in the system. It is very difficult to correct and normally, the
tangential field curve is taken as the imaging plane for calculation purposes.

Correction of Astigmatism
As seen from the seidel sum expression for Astigmatism, there is three ways
to eliminate astigmatism.
➢ Y = 0 by making the image plane at the surface
➢ Make A zero by making the surface concentric with the incoming
wavefront.
➢ Make the surface aplanatic which will satisfy ∆un= 0
The figure below explains these three cases.
➢ Astigmatism is also eliminated by placing the stop at the natural stop

position. Thus as in previous case, y =0 and hence at the natural stop
position, we have zero coma and astigmatism.
➢ Being an odd aberration, astigmatism can also be corrected by
introducing negative astigmatism to cancel out the positive
astigmatism. This a done in the cooke triplet as shown in figure below
W220 Petzval Field Curvature

Field curvature occurs due to the thickness variation of the element. As a

result, the rays are focused onto a spherical surface instead of a plane
surface. This spherical surface which has the optimum image is known as
the petzval field. Thus we can say that if we compress all the elements of
the system and nett glass thickness is a parallel plate, then we will not have
any field curvature. This principle is used in most of the correction methods.
Correction of field Curvature

There are four classical ways for the correction of field curvature.
➢ A thick meniscus lens can be used since it contributes optical power
even when both surfaces have the same radii of curvature. Thus we
have a curved parallel plate with power.
➢ Separated thin lenses – Having a separated system of thin lenses that
introduces bulges and constrictions into the beam path helps to reduce
field curvature. Basically, when all the components of the system are
compressed together, we will get a parallel plate of glass.
➢ Using a field flattener lens near the image plane helps to introduce field
curvature which helps to cancel the field curvature of the system. But
this lens do not contribute to spherical aberration, coma or astigmatism
which is very useful.
➢ New achromat – The design of the achromat can be modified to get
system with nearly similar radii of curvature for both surfaces. This
design is based on the expression of sag of the petzval surface with a
higher refractive index for the crown and a lower refractive index for the
flint.
1ρ'k = ∅n

➢ Another method of field correction is by using a curved image plane. But

mounting a ffilm on a curved surface is always very hard and expensive
since special kinds of films and mounts might be needed.
W311 Distortion
Distortion is caused due to the change of magnification with field. It has a

cubic dependence on the field. It can be thought of as the spherical
aberration of the chief ray. Hence most of the correction methods applied for
spherical aberration can be used here too. The two classifications of
distortion are Barrel Distortion and Pincushion distortion which are shown
below.
As can be seen, due to the change in magnification, the squares at the

edges are either magnified or demagnified.
Correction of Distortion

➢ Symmetry – Since distortion is an odd aberration, we can cancel it by

using symmetry about the stop
➢ An aspheric can be used near the image plane that compensates for
distortion
➢ A field flattener near the image plane can be bend to reduce distortion
since distortion is affected by lens bending

Chapter 5
Chromatic Aberrations
Chromatic aberration in general refers to the change in lens aberrations as a
function of wavelength. In general we can define two first order aberrations
that change with wavelength; the focus, W020 and magnification W111. The
former is called axial chromatic aberration and the latter, lateral chromatic
aberration. Since refractive index is the most important factor when talking
about chromatic aberration, we will now look at the properties of various
glasses.
Properties of Glasses
The important properties of glass are:
Refractivity: nd – 1
Mean Dispersion: nF – nC
Partial Dispersion: nd – n C
Abbe number ν =
Partial Dispersion Ratio P =
The standard for specifying glass type is using six digits:

abcdef where, nd = 1.abc
and ν = de.f
Glasses are also divided into many categories based on these properties.
• Crown Glass – has a ν > 50
• Flint Glass – has a ν < 50
• Normal glass – it is made up of soda-lime, silica and lead.
The glass catalog describes the two important properties of glass, the nd/ν
plot. Shown below is typical glass catalog from the manufacturer [1]

Also, it is impossible to find out the refractive index of a glass for all
wavelengths. So interpolation formulas like Hartman, Conrady, Kettler-
Drude, Sellmeier, Herzberger and Schott’s own formula are used which
calculates ‘n’ from known data points.
Third order theory
We can now define the actual variation of first order coefficients with change
in wavelength.
• δλ W020 = 12 Ay* Δ(δnn)

where, δnn =
• δλ W111 = By* Δ(δnn) (n-1)ν n
Also, on stop shifting, the change in axial and lateral chromatic aberrations
will be,
• Δ δλ W020 = 0 (This is because, on stop shift, the on-axis beam is

unchanged)
• Δ δλ W020 = 2 (δyy) * δλ W020
And, for a thin lens, these can be written as,
• δλ W020 = 12 y2f ν
• δλ W020 = y*yf ν

Achromatization
It is the process of eliminating chromatic aberration which is normally done

for two wavelengths, the F and C wavelengths.
Achromatic Wedge:
For a wedge, the desired condition would be deviation without any
dispersion. Two wedges are used normally, one being crown glass and the
other a flint glass. Deviation
Dispersion
Secondary dispersion
Hence,
and,
Achromatic Doublet (treated as two wedges):

An achromatic doublet lens can be designed by assuming that the 2 lenses
are wedges. But this assumption breaks down for very fast lenses. The
design equations for the two lenses are:
Single glass achromats
There are a various forms of achromatic devices that achieve chromatic

correction using only one type of glass. Some of them are:

The Huyghenian eyepiece – It has two plano convex lenses arranged as

shown
The image is formed in between the lenses and the marginal ray height
changes from positive at the first lens to negative at the second lens. Thus
by designing the values of y, f, and ν, appropriately, we can cancel lateral
chromatic aberration.
The Maksutov meniscus – This design makes use of the fact that a
meniscus lens can be thought of as a plano convex lens, a parallel plate and
a plano concave lens. Since the focal lengths are opposing, we can make the
axial chromatic aberrations cancel.
Shupman dialytes – A schupman dialyte has a positive and a negative

lens combination as shown below
Here also the focal lengths are opposite while the marginal ray height will be
positive since it is the square. So the objective achieves axial chromatic
aberration correction. But the problem with this design is that the image is
virtual and in between the lenses. This is not very useful for a telescope

objective. Hence the design was modified to develop the Schupman medial
telescope.
The Schupman medial telescope works on the same principle as a
Schupman dialyte. But the difference is that, to deal with the diverging
beam from the negative element, the exit surface if the element is mirrored
to focus the light back. This negative lens-mirror combination is called a
Mangin mirror. The setup is shown below which corrects for axial chromatic
aberration.
But this design can be improved by adding a field lens at the intermediate
image plane. In such a configuration, y = 0 at the Objective and the Mangin
mirror and y = 0 at the field lens. As a result, the system gets corrected for
lateral chromatic aberration also.
Chromatic correction techniques
Achromatize all elements - This is the easiest design solution but it

makes the system redundant since we are varying a lot of parameters when
we need to have only two degrees of freedom to correct for the two
chromatic aberrations.
Buried Surface – In the buried surface technique, an achromat with nearly

the same nd but different abbe numbers is used.

Phantom stop – In the phantom stop technique, we use some of the

properties of axial and lateral color to control the two aberrations. Firstly,
since lateral color is an odd aberration, we place the stop at such a position
so that the symmetry of the lens system will cancel the lateral chromatic
aberration. So, CL = 0. Now at this position, we correct for axial chromatic
aberration. Once we obtain minimum axial chromatic aberration, we shift the
stop to its original position. Since stop shifting does not change Lateral color
and as the value of CL at the previous position was zero, both lateral and
axial colors remain the same.

Chapter 6
Diffractive Optical Elements (DOE)
Commonly used terminology:

Kinoform – This is a phased Fresnel lens. The individual zones of the
diffractive element is nicely arranged and the phase modulation is achieved
from the topography of the element.
Binary optics – These are diffractive elements made by electronic fabrication
techniques, which mean that the ideal staircase is replaced by staircases.
Hybrid lens – It is a lens that uses both refractive and diffractive properties
to deviate the light.
Fresnel lens
A Fresnel lens is different from a diffractive optical element. Some of the
differences are:
• Scale is larger – the size of the zones is in the order of mm
• Wavefronts are discontinuous – There appears to be breaks in the
wavefront after diffraction
• Due to the broken wavefronts, the pattern at the image plane will be a
random pattern instead of an airy disc
Fresnel Zone Plate: A Fresnel zone plate is used amplitude modulate the
incoming wave and focus it to a point. Rings which contribute with
destructive interference are made opaque. The radius of the rings in a
Fresnel zone plate for a focal length of f is given by: rn ≈ nλf
Amplitude and Phase: Amplitude modulated DOE will modulate the light by
placing opacities in the path of light. But this results in loss of light. A phase
modulated design is more efficient as it uses the phase modulation produced
by the glass of a particular thickness.
Blaze is defined as the geometry that is used in phase modulated elements.
It has a saw-tooth structure in most elements. It determines the amount of
energy that goes into each order.
Zone boundary determines the shape of the wavefront emerging
Chromatic properties
For a refractive lens,
∅refractive = n-1R

∂∅=∅d nf- ncnd - 1

ϑrefractive = ∅∂∅
For a diffractive lens,

∅diffractive = ∅refractive λreconstructionλconstruction
∂∅diffractive = ∅refractive ∂λreconstructionλconstruction
ϑdiffractive = ∅diffractive∂∅diffractive
Modeling DOE
Two point construction model
This was done by having two point sources and letting the waves interfere.
The resulting pattern will emulate a DOE. This was done in the earlier lens
design programs where the user could specify the two points, the
wavelength and the order at which work is done.
The order ‘m’ and the

wavelengths at which work is Point B(x,y,z)
done, λconstruction and λreconstruction
can be specified
Point A(x,y,z)
Phase Model
In this method, the deformation introduced by the DOE is modeled by a
polynomial of the form,
where ρ is the radial distance from the

axis.
Sweatt’s Model
Sweatt’s model was first introduced to overcome the problem of modeling
DOE in lens design programs. He found that by increasing the refractive
index to a very high value, a DOE behaves similar to a refractive element.

Thus, by assuming a very high ‘n’ for a diffractive element, it could be
modeled in a conventional program used to model refractive elements.
Aberrations in DOE
The aberrations introduced by DOE can be found by substituting the
Sweatt’s model in the structural coefficients. Thus by assuming refractive
index to be infinity in the equations for the structural coefficients of a thin
lens, we can obtain the expressions for diffractive aberrations.
Efficiency
The ideal curve of a DOE is nearly impossible to fabricate. Hence it is
constructed in multi-level microstructures. The efficiency of the DOE is
dependent on the number of levels used for fabrication of the curve. This
dependence is given by the formula,
η1N = [sinπN(πN)]2 where N is the number of levels and 1 is the
diffraction order

Chapter 7
Image Quality
Image quality is important since it decides the resolution and hence the
readable information content in an image.
Image Quality (IQ) Specifications

It can be based on Geometry, Diffraction or other parameters like uniformity,
F-theta linearity etc. But there should always be a spec when designing.
Always work towards end-product specs based on performance, like MTF,
ensquared energy etc. but it is very hard to optimize based on these. Hence
design can be done using IQ metrics specs like ray aberration plots and field
plots. Choice of the correct IQ metric depends on the application. For
example, in astronomical telescopes the object is a point source and
ensquared energy or RMS wavefront might be appropriate.
Wavefront error
For error budgeting, it is always better to utilize RMS error rather than peak-
to-valley error.
(Figure from lecture by Richard Juergens)
Surface error

The size of a bump is defined in wave terms where, σ = Δt/λ , where Δt is the
physical size of the bump and λ is th wavelength of light. Hence the
wavefront error produced by a bump will be,
WFE = σ Δn where Δn is the difference in refractive index between the two
media and for a mirror, WFE = 2σ.
Rayleigh Criterion
Image quality is acceptable if wavefront error does not exceed λ/4 peak-to-
valley. This corresponds to 0.07 waves of RMS error (Φ) and a Strehl ratio of
0.8
Strehl ratio = e-(2πΦ)2
Ray Aberration curves

Maps the change in image position of the rays in a fan from the chief ray
image position v/s the pupil position of the rays. Plots are done in the
tangential direction (y-axis) and the sagittal direction (x-axis).
It can be Transverse or Wavefront ray aberration curves. The former is a

derivative of the latter. It is the same data presented in a different form. For
example, below is the wavefront ray aberration curve and transverse ray
aberration curve of a lens having spherical aberration.

Spot Diagrams
The problem with ray aberration curves is that it does not give any
information about the skew rays. Hence we use spot diagrams. But the
problem with spot diagrams is that it does not give information about the
intensity, if more than one ray is falling at the same point.
Diffraction
The Point Spread Function is used when diffraction also comes into the
picture. PSF gives the image of a point object. Diffraction makes the PSF of a
point object into an airy disc. But the effect of aberrations is to spread the
energy from the central order to the outer rings. This is shown in the figure
below. Aberrations also change the shape of the PSF. But at 0.8 Strehl ratio,
the PSF due to the different aberrations are comparable.
Modulation transfer Function (MTF)

The Modulation Transfer Function (MTF) is a measure of the image quality of

a system based o the size of the object which is expressed in terms of the
spatial frequency. For computing the MTF, a sine wave target is used and
the amount of modulation in the sine wave target is plotted for different
spatial frequencies. This is clear from the image shown below.
11:12:33
Hence for an aberration free system with a round pupil, the MTF will be of
the form, DIFFRACTION LIMIT
WAVELENGTH WEIGHT
DIFFRACTION MTF 500.0 NM 1
λf
AXIS
2
MTF ( f ) = [ϕ − cosϕ1.0sinϕ ] where ϕ13-Oct-02
= cos−1 ( f / f co ) = cos−1 ( and 0.00000
)DEFOCUSING f is the spatial frequency in
π lpmm 2 NA
Thus, we get an MTF of the form given below.
0.9
0.8
0.7
M
O 0.6
D
U
L 0.5
A
T
I
O 0.4
N
0.3
Cutoff
0.2 frequency
0.1 fco = 1 / (λ f/#)
50 150 250 350 450 550 650 750 850 950
SPATIAL FREQUENCY (CYCLES/MM)
An example MTF curve for a normal system would be as shown below. As

shown, there are separate curves for sagittal and tangential fields. This is
due to the fact that coma is present only in the tangential direction. As a
result, the tangential MTF deteriorates more than the sagittal MTF.

Mathematically, MTF is defined as the autocorrelation of the pupil error

function. So, as the spatial frequent is increased there will be a point at
which the MTF reaches zero. This frequency is called the cut-off frequency fc.

Chapter 8
Classical Lenses
Landscape lens
The landscape lens, used in the Brownie camera is a simple one

element plano convex lens. The stop is places at the natural stop location
such that the first surface is aplanatic and the second surface is concentric
with the stop. This helps to reduce aberrations like spherical aberration,
coma and astigmatism. But the lens has a large amount of field curvature
and since it is very hard to image on a curved surface, the landscape lens is
not an optimal solution.
So the next step was to correct for the field curvature. But the number
of degrees of freedom at our disposal is very few. So Wollaston came up with
the idea that by moving the stop from the natural stop position to introduce
negative astigmatism to flatten the tangential field. Another solution for the
Landscape lens is to put the stop behind the lens. Even though this solution
is not as good as the stop-in-front design, the lens at the front helps to
protect the stop, shutter and other camera parts from the outside elements.
The lens-in-front solution has a spot radii of around 40-160 µm for an
HFOV of 30º for an f/15 design. Even though this is not a perfect solution, it
works pretty well for landscape cameras due to the large depth of field and
fairly large FOV. The image quality is also enough to produce spot sizes on
the photograph which are smaller than the human visual resolution limit of 1
arc minute.
Chevalier lens
Chevalier had designed a double glass solution which corrected for

chromatic aberration in telescopes, which was naturally brought over to the
photographic realm to improve the chromatic performance of the landscape
lens. The Chevalier lens was an achromatic solution having the crown and
flint glasses put together and it even reduced spherical aberration and
coma. But field curvature, distortion and astigmatism were issues of this lens
and the image quality was poor. Also size of the lens was a problem since for

a 200mm focal length a lens of 60mm diameter was needed. But the lens
helped in the taking the design of the achromatic doublet one step further.
Petzval portrait lens
The problem of the portrait lens was that it was slow. At f/15, it was very
hard to take photographs of people due to the movement of the subject.
Hence, Petzval designed an f/3.3 lens system which was fast enough to take
portrait photographs. It consisted of two elements which were achromatised
individually with the stop in between. Splitting the lens helps to reduce
spherical aberration and the symmetry about the stop helps to control coma.
Distortion was in control since the lens had a relatively small field of view of
15º.
Periscopic lens
Made by Wollaston, it consisted of two meniscus lenses with stop

symmetrically in between the two. This has the ability of correcting the odd
aberrations like distortion very nicely but unfortunately, the image quality of
the lens was comparatively same as that of the normal landscape lens.
Rapid Rectilinear lens
The periscopic lens helped to bring the idea of doubling the lens into lens
design. In this method, the rear lens is designed with a flattened tangential
field and then a symmetrical lens is placed in front with respect to the stop.
Using the same principle, Dallmeyer and Steinheil came up with a faster lens
than the landscape lens with a smaller field of view. The lens also had the
problem of field curvature and the tangential field was artificially flattened.
Schroeder Lens
In all the earlier lenses we have seen, there was the problem of astigmatism
being used to correct for field curvature. To get rid of both of these,
schroeder took the new achromat lens which were then doubled. The
speciality was that since the new achromat decreases the field curavature,
we need only a small amount of astigmatism to flatten the tangential field.

The symmetry takes care of the odd aberrations.
Protar
The Protar lens was made by Paul Rudolf of Zeiss Optics and the lens used a
low power old achromat meniscus in front of the stop along with the new
achromat. This meniscus helps to reduce the spherical aberration caused by
the new achromat. As a result the lens has a well corrected field, and very
good spherical aberration and astigmatism control. Since the lens is
symmetrical, it cancels out distortion too to an extent.
Cooke Triplet
Cooke triplet is a classical lens that used the principle of symmetry to

perfection. Two opposite power lenses were used which meant the petzval
sum was zero. Power was introduced by controlling the spacing between the
elements. But the system still does not have enough degrees of freedom to
correct for all the fourth order aberrations. SO the two positive elements
were split into two. This meant there was 3 powers, 2 air gaps and 3 shape
factors which was just enough to solve for the 5 fourth order aberrations,
axial and chromatic color and focal length.
Planar / Double Gauss
The design of the lens was done in steps by Alvan Clark and Paul Rudolph. It
started with the normal landscape lens which has negative coma and
spherical aberration. So a thick meniscus was added which had positive
coma and corrected spherical aberration. Clark doubled this lens to arrive at
a patented design. Rudolph carried the design further by adding a buried
surface which corrected for axial chromatic aberration without adding any
spherical aberration. So now the lens had a flat field due to the meniscus
shape, no astigmatism due to the symmetry of the stop position, correction
of spherical aberration due to the shape factor of the meniscus and odd
aberration cancelled due to symmetry. The lens was very fast and performed
well over an acceptable FOV and the spot size was nearing the diffraction
limit.

Chapter 9
Tolerancing
From what I learnt in the lens design class until now, designing of lenses is
an art. It is a skill acquired over a long period of time with practice since
there is a lot of parameters that needs to be controlled and there a lot of
interdependence. But an equally challenging task awaits a designer even
after he designs his lenses. That is the process of tolerancing. Tolenrancing
of lenses is needed since a lens cannot be perfectly manufactured. Errors
during manufacture in radius, index, thickness, spacing etc., lead to a
decrease in the merit function and image quality. Hence a designer should
always mention tolerances within the constraints of which an acceptable
image quality will be obtained. Simple tolerancing techniques include having
compensators in the system, which are parameters of the system that can
be varied to compensate to any error accumulating due to manufacturing
flaws. Some of the tolerancing limits as explained by R. Shannon in his book
is as given below.

Using Statistics
It is known that when a system is manufactured with all the allowable

tolerance values, the performance distribution of these systems take a bell-
shaped curve.
Also, each system parameter has its own probability distribution function
(PDF) for performance, and making use of the central limit theorem, we can
link these individual PDFs to the overall system PDF. Finally by integrating
the PDF we can estimate how many systems will meet a given performance.
Sensitivity analysis
In this method, we will be given the design value of system parameters like
radius, thicknesses etc., and each will have a tolerance range. So we change
each of the parameters within the tolerance values for the surfaces and
analyze the change in the system merit function. Thus we are finding the

sensitivity of the system for these changes and this is called the sensitivity
analysis.
Inverse sensitivity analysis
The inverse sensitivity analysis works backwards from the sensitivity

analysis. Here, we change the system merit function within the allowed
limits and monitor the change in the surface parameter values. In this
method the tolerance values of the surface obtained will be the worst case
scenario for that particular surface and if all the surfaces are manufactured
at these limits, naturally the system merit function drops significantly below
the allowed tolerance limit.
Monte Carlo
As can be expected, it is possible to know the performance distribution by

changing all the possible variables randomly. This is what is dome in a Monte
Carlo simulation. It is in a way a brute force method in which the system
goes through iterations changing the variables at random and calculating
the performance. As expected, when the number of iteration increases, it
gives a better idea of the performance distribution. But for complex systems,
this method can be extremely demanding on the processors and time-
consuming.

References
➢ 517 Introduction to Lens Design – Class notes and Lectures – Jose
Sasian
➢ Image Quality Lecture – Richard Juergens
➢ OPTI 517 Class Summary by Matthew Lang
➢ http://images.pennnet.com/articles/lfw/thm/th_lfw30238-20.gif
Acknowledgements
This class summary was prepared based on the knowledge obtained in
lens design from the OPTI 517 course and I would like to thank the TA, Lirong
Wang at this time who was always willing to clear any doubt I had, however
trivial it was. This was especially important for me since I had taken the
course without taking the Aberrations course, OPTI 509 which was
considered to be a prerequisite.
I would also like to thank Prof. Jose Sasian for sharing his immense
knowledge in the interesting field of lens design. This course helped me to
gain an insight into the challenges and subtleties of this field which also one
of my favorite among the optics research areas.

2009 Class Summary Essay - Vineeth Abraham

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OPTI 517 Lens Design

2 - First order Optics 4

6 - Diffractive Optical Elements (DOE)

College of Optical Sciences, University of Arizona 2

Every ray from a point of the object must converge to or diverge

Collinear Transformation Definition:

Defines imaging as a one-to-one mapping between object and

a1 X + b1Y + c1Z + d1 a2 X + b2Y + c2 Z + d 2 a3 X + b3Y + c3 Z + d 3

Symmetry: The collinear transformation equations are greatly simplified by

Assuming origins at the focal points gives the Newtonian

Z 1 ; ZZ ' = ff ' ; Z'

First order Optics

Paraxial Image Formation

In the paraxial region, Snell’s law is given by: n i = n’ i’

n’u’ = nu – yϕ Refraction equation

College of Optical Sciences, University of Arizona 4

Optical Invariants are quantities that are non-changing on refraction and

n’u’yτ – n’u’yτ = nuy - nuy Invariant on Transfer

The Aperture Stop

College of Optical Sciences, University of Arizona 5

The main cardinal points used in optical systems are:

College of Optical Sciences, University of Arizona 6

Now if we look at on-axis images, we realize that our system is axially

Wave Aberration Function

The wave aberration function is a function of the scalar product of the

College of Optical Sciences, University of Arizona 7

Field Curvature -----

Axial Chromatic Aberration ∂λ W020 = 12 CL C L = Ay ∆(∂nn) and

The variables used in the equation are,

Aspheric surfaces can be considered as caps on the spherical surface. So the

The aberration contributions by the aspheric cap is given by,

College of Optical Sciences, University of Arizona 8

Here, δy is calculated at the original stop position for convenience since

For a thin lens, these can be written as,

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College of Optical Sciences, University of Arizona 11

The wave fan shape for 1 wave of defocus is shown below.

All pictures courtesy of Sample report by

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W040 Spherical Aberration

Spherical aberration (SA) is a fourth order aberration caused by the variation

Correction of Spherical Aberration

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Coma is an off-axis aberration and is caused by the variation of

➢ Bending is another method for reduction of coma.

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Astigmatism is a non-axially symmetric aberration since it has different

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➢ Astigmatism is also eliminated by placing the stop at the natural stop

W220 Petzval Field Curvature

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Field curvature occurs due to the thickness variation of the element. As a

Correction of field Curvature

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➢ Another method of field correction is by using a curved image plane. But

Distortion is caused due to the change of magnification with field. It has a

As can be seen, due to the change in magnification, the squares at the

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➢ Symmetry – Since distortion is an odd aberration, we can cancel it by

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The important properties of glass are:

Partial Dispersion Ratio P =

The standard for specifying glass type is using six digits:

College of Optical Sciences, University of Arizona 20