Intermediate Optical Design

Abstract

"SPIE digital library.". This second volume based on Michael Kidger's popular short courses and workshops is aimed at readers already familiar with the concepts presented in Fundamental Optical Design (SPIE Press Vol. PM92). It begins with a sweeping discussion of optimization that is written with the user in mind and continues with a unique look at the role of higher-order aberrations. The book's key feature is its astounding presentation of a wide range of practical design examples, covering such problems as secondary spectrum correction, high numerical aperture designs, lasers, zoom lenses, tilted or decentered optical systems, and price and performance requirements. Each scenario is accompanied by an in-depth discussion that goes well beyond the ray aberration plot, including useful insights into an optical designer's thought processes. Chapter 1. Optimization -- Special characteristics of lens design as an optimization problem -- The nature of the merit function -- The Strehl ratio -- MTF optimization -- General comments -- Comparison with the optical thin-film design problem -- Nonlinearity of the aberrations -- Changes needed to reduce high-order aberrations -- A method of visualizing the problem of optimization in lens design -- Theory of damped least squares (Levenberg-Marquardt) -- Some details of damped least squares as used in lens design -- Paraxial (first-order) properties -- Seidel and Buchdahl coefficients -- Transverse ray or wavefront aberrations -- Aberration balancing and choice of weighting factors -- Damping -- Control of physical constraints -- Control of glass boundary conditions -- Solves -- Lagrange multipliers -- Some reasons for the success of the DLS method -- Experiments with optimization programs -- Effect of changing the damping factor -- Effect of scaling the parameter changes -- An optimization example -- References.