Abstract

Anamorphic afocal imaging with arbitrary principal magnifications and object–image distance can be achieved with two spherocylindrical lenses. Associated with such systems is only one pair of conjugate planes, as opposed to an infinite number for rotation-symmetric afocal combinations. A paraxial study of these anamorphic afocal systems will be presented, along with some useful formulas. This will be supplemented by examples of ray traces and aberration studies. We will describe an application involving the reshaping of excimer laser beams, for coupling to a subsequent system, from a rectangular to a square cross section for the enhancement of beam uniformity.

© 1990 Optical Society of America