Abstract

For optical systems which are near diffraction limited, the Strehl ratio (SR) is a unique number, which links between the residual wavefront aberrations to the diffraction image of a point source. The Strehl ratio is related to the variance of the wavefront. In the present model, the different geometrical aberrations are computed to define their contribution to the Strehl value, which is employed as a merit function in the system specification. This criteria enables system evaluation (either by MTF analysis, geometrical spot and Point Spread Functions) prior to system design.

© 1998 Optical Society of America