Aberration Theory

&
Optical System Design

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 Contents
• Introduction
• Apertures and Stops
• Paraxial Quantities and Terminology
• Rays as Wave Normals
• Transverse Ray Aberrations
• Wave Aberration
• Relationship between Wave aberration and Transverse Ray Aberration
• Longitudinal focal shift
• Transverse focal shift
• Equation of a wavefront
• Normalized form of T.R.A. formulae
• Wave Aberration function of axial object
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 Introduction
Aberration
Failure of an image forming system to produce a true image; i.e. a point object
as a point image.
The reason of the failure is that real optical design work is based on Snell’s law

n sin θ = n' sin θ '

which for any reasonable aperture and field is a non linear function.

Five monochromatic aberrations were recognized by the German

mathematician Ludwig Von Seidel and are referred to as third-order or Seidel
aberrations, compared to first-order optics that is based on the Gaussian
approximation nθ = n'θ ' with which you can calculate object and image
distances, EFL, magnification, the Optical Invariant, Cardinal Points, etc.
Two additional aberrations, chromatic aberrations, result from the wavelength
dependence of the refractive index of glass materials. Purely reflective systems
do not suffer from chromatic aberrations.
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 Introduction
The total of third-order aberrations are:
1. Spherical aberration
2. Coma
3. Astigmatism
4. Field curvature
5. Distortion
6. Longitudinal color (chromatic variation of focus)
7. Transverse color (chromatic variation of magnification)
The monochromatic aberrations can be further divided into two groups
depending on whether or not they cause the image to deteriorate and become
blurred. Image blur occurs in spherical aberration coma and astigmatism.
Distortion causes a displacement of the point image (resulting in deformation
of an extended image) but no blur. Field curvature also results in a perfect
point image provided the image surface is not restricted to lie on a plane.
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 Apertures and Stops
The APERTURE STOP is defined to be that stop or lens rim which physically
limits the solid angle of rays passing through the system.
Thus it controls the brightness of the image, as well as the resolving power of
the optical system.
The Aperture Stop is not always the first element of the system.
The Image of the aperture stop in the object space is the Entrance pupil
The image of the aperture stop in the image space is the Exit pupil

The Field STOP is the aperture that controls the field of view. A field STOP
is often located in the image plane (Photographic film, detectors) or it may be
located in the object plane (as in the case of a slide projector where the
opaque mount of the slide limits the field)
The Image of the field stop in the object space is the entrance window
The Image of the field stop in the image space is the exit window

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 Apertures and Stops

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 Apertures and Stops
Aperture
STOP

Exit Pupil Entrance Pupil

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 Paraxial Quantities and Terminology

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 Paraxial Quantities and Terminology
A marginal ray is that ray from the axial object point which passes through the very
edge of the entrance pupil and therefore through the edge of the aperture stop.
The chief ray (or pupil ray, or reference ray or principal ray) is that ray from the
edge of the field which passes through the center of the entrance pupil and hence
close to the center of the stop (not necessarily exactly through its center because
of pupil aberrations). The chief ray is very important because it is used as an origin
of position and direction for aberration calculations in the image space.
In a pencil of rays from an object point at any ray other than the chief ray may be
termed as an aperture ray.
The meridian section is that plane containing the object point and the optical axis.
Rays laying in this section are meridian rays, other rays are skew rays.
Both chief and marginal rays are meridional rays. To distinguish them, heights and
angles of the chief ray are barred, heights and angles of the marginal rays are
unbarred.
Whenever a marginal ray crosses the optical axis an image is located.
Whenever a chief ray crosses the optical axis a pupil is located.
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 RAYS AS WAVE NORMALS

In Figure 3, a spherical wave ABC is diverging from a point source O. The

wavefronts are spheres with center at O, and OAP, OBQ and OCR, are ray
normals to the wavefront at A, B, C . These rays meet an interface between
media of refractive index n and n’ at the points P, Q, R.
The transmitted wavefronts will not generally be spherical, so that the wave-
normals (rays) PA’, QB’, and RC’ will not pass through a single point.
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 RAYS AS WAVE NORMALS
We may regard each ray as the path followed by the corresponding element of
the wavefront.
The wave element at A travels along AP, then along PA’ to A’, and similarly for
all other elements of the wavefront at ABC.
Now in wave optics, the refractive index, for a given wavelength, is the ratio of
the velocity in vacuum, c, to the velocity, V in a given medium. Where
V=c/n
is the velocity of the wave in a medium of refractive index n. The time of travel
from A to A’ is therefore given by

= {n( AP) + n' ( PA' )}

( AP) ( PA' ) 1
t AA' = +
V V' c

We define the product n(AP)=[AP] to be the optical path length of the segment
(AP); and always using square brackets to denote the optical path length, we
have for the time of flight from A to A’.
( AP) ( PA' ) 1
t AA' = + = [ A... A' ]
V V' c
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 RAYS AS WAVE NORMALS
The wave disturbances at A, B and C are all in phase, since ABC is a wavefront.
For A’B’C’ to be a wavefront, having disturbances of the same phase at A’, B’, C,
the times of travel along APA’, BQB’ and CRC’ must all be equal. That is, the
optical path lengths along all rays between the two wavefronts must be equal; for
example,

[A…A’]=[B…B’]=[C…C’]

It is this method which is usually employed to find the form of a wavefront after
transmission through any optical system. Rays are traced from each object point,
and optical path lengths are calculated along them.

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 Transverse Ray Aberration

Aperture ray δη '

δξ '

η'
O
O’
η

Chief Ray

The intersection of the chief ray with the image plane is taken as the origin for
measuring the transverse ray aberration (TRA). If the chief ray intersection is
(O’,η ') and that of an aperture ray is (δξ ' ,η ' + δη ' ) then the two rectangular
components of the TRA of that aperture ray are (δξ ' , δη ' ). The point (O’,η ') is
sometimes called the geometrical image point.

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 Wave Aberration

The shape of an imaging-forming wavefront for an aberration free system is a perfect

sphere.
The departure of an actual wavefront from this ideal shape is a measure of the
aberration of the system. The wave aberration associated with a ray is the optical path
length between the wavefront and the Ideal or Reference Sphere measured along the
ray. For this purpose the Reference sphere and wavefront are coincident at the exit pupil
and the sphere is centered on the paraxial image point.
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 Wave Aberration

In Figure 5 EBo is a sphere centered on O. The sphere E’Bo’ is centered on O’

(the paraxial image point) and is the reference sphere. The surface E’B’ is the
aberrated wavefront; it is chosen to coincide with the reference sphere at E’.
The wave aberration is the optical length [Bo’B’] and is taken to be positive
when the wavefront leads the reference sphere.
Clearly
[E…E’]=[Bo…B’]
[Bo…B’]=[Bo…Bo’]+W
Thus W= [Bo…B’]-[Bo…Bo’]

This is the general expression for W which formed the basis of the calculations
of W by subtraction of optical path lengths. In fact W sometimes is noted as
OPD (Optical Path Difference)

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 Relation between wave and TRA

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 Relation between wave and TRA

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 Relation between wave and TRA

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 Normalized form of TRA formulae

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 Relation between wave and TRA

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 Longitudinal Focal shift

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 Longitudinal Focal Shift

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 Longitudinal Focal Shift

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 Transverse Focal Shift – Tilt of Reference Sphere

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 Transverse Focal Shift

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 Transverse Focal Shift

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 Wave Aberration Polynomial for a
rotationally symmetric system

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 Wave Aberration Polynomial for a
rotationally symmetric system

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 Wave Aberration Polynomial for a
rotationally symmetric system

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 Wave Aberration Polynomial for a
rotationally symmetric system

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 Wave Aberration Polynomial for a
rotationally symmetric system

From (3)

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 Wave Aberration Polynomial for a
rotationally symmetric system

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 Wave Aberration Polynomial for a
rotationally symmetric system

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 Wave Aberration Polynomial

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 Wave Aberration Polynomial

0 Tilt of reference sphere

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 Wave Aberration Polynomial

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 Wave Aberration Polynomial

and

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 Wave Aberration Polynomial

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 Wave Aberration Polynomial

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 Petzval Sum
Let us assume that we have a spherical interface and that the object for
the time being is lying on a spherical surface rather than a plane, and is ρ
as seen in the figure below.
Then by using the simple formula for a single surface
n' n (n'−n)
− =
s' s r
And substituting ρ=s-r and ρ’=s’-r
1 1 n'− n
− =
n' ρ ' nρ nn' r
n n’
ρ

r For example r=10, s=20

ρ’
object n=1 and n’=1.5
Then s’=-30
Image
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 Petzval Sum
For k surfaces it can proved that the Petzval sum is given by

1 1 n'− n
− =∑
n' k ρ ' k nρ1 nn' r

And therefore for a thin lens with two surfaces and n=1 for air

1 1 n'−n n'−n n − n' n'−1 1 1

− =∑ = + = [ − ]
nρ 2 nρ1 nn' r nn' r1 nn' r2 n' r1 r2

Rearranging terms and taking ρ1=infinity we get that for a thin lens the

1 Φ
Petzval Sum= =∑
ρ n'

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 Reading and HW
• New Homework is out on website

• Read Chapter 6 (aberrations) in Smith

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