Abstract

The task of imaging optics design starts with choosing a subset of imaging parameters such as the object distance, the image magnification, the image resolution, and the depth of field. It is clear that the imaging parameters are inter-related and their appropriate trade-off is the key problem of final optical design. We provide a novel analysis of the optical design considering diffractive imaging phenomena and thin lens approximation, and we derive formulas for the solution of individual parameters. We show that combinations of three independent optical design input variables determine all other optical and geometrical parameters under diffraction-limited optical imaging. We also formulate an invariant relation in the object space if the depth of field is one of the design’s target parameters.

© 2022 Optica Publishing Group

Extended depth of focus by self-imaging wavefront division with the mirror tunnel

Conor J. Sheil, Andreas Wartak, Graham L. C. Spicer, and Guillermo J. Tearney
J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 39(4) 711-725 (2022)

Diffractive optical system design by cascaded propagation

Boris Ferdman, Alon Saguy, Dafei Xiao, and Yoav Shechtman
Opt. Express 30(15) 27509-27530 (2022)

Adaptive optics for diffraction-limited infrared imaging with 8-m telescopes

D. G. Sandler, S. Stahl, J. R. P. Angel, M. Lloyd-Hart, and D. McCarthy
J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 11(2) 925-945 (1994)

Simplified superoscillatory lenses for super-resolution imaging

Rui Qi and Gregory J. Gbur
J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 39(12) C116-C125 (2022)

Optical design of diffraction-limited x-ray telescopes

Brandon D. Chalifoux, Ralf K. Heilmann, Herman L. Marshall, and Mark L. Schattenburg
Appl. Opt. 59(16) 4901-4914 (2020)