Abstract

A perfect lens aperture is masked by a linear retarder. An analyzer is placed at the output side, and the system is illuminated incoherently by a polarized polychromatic beam having a Gaussian spectral profile. The effects of changing the orientation of the retarder axes, the orientation of the output analyzer, and the thickness of the retarder plate on the transfer function characteristics have been studied. The effects of the change in rotator thickness and the orientation of the output analyzer on the transfer function values have also been studied where circular biréfringent materials are used as aperture masks. In both cases the effects of the aberrations introduced by the finite thickness of the polarizer have been neglected. The effect of change in the spectral width of the input beam on the OTF values has also been studied in both cases.

© 1987 Optical Society of America