Geometrical Optics

Lecture 10
Optical Instruments
Microscope & Eyes
中央大學光電所
副教授
梁肇文 博士
 The Magnifier

Plug into Um
 The Magnifier in different situations
250mm( z ' f )
General Situation MP 
f ( z ' L)
Lens Located at the eyes : L =0

250mm 250mm
MP  
f z'

Object at front focal plane, image at infinity : Z’ =Inf

250mm
MP 
f

Place the image at the near point, obtain the maximum MP

250mm
MP  1
f
 Magnification of a Magnifier


' f 250
M  
Image at infinity  25  f
250
 
' f 250 250
Maximum magnification when M   1
Image at near point  25  f
250
 Microscope
Eye Ball

250mm F0  l ' 160mm

M  M 0M v  M 0 l '  F0 (1  M 0 )  M 0  
Fe F0 F0

160mm 250mm
M
F0 Fe
• Total power is the product of the both magnifying powers
of objective and eye piece!
 Some terms you should know about microscopy

• Working distance : From object to first element

• Parfocal objectives : The focus is maintained
when the objective is changed.
• N.A : Numerical aperture of objective in object
space
• Infinity corrected objective : The object position
is at front focal point of the objective.
• Oil immersion objective : The object lens that
must work with immersion oil to reach high NA.
Increase the diffraction resolution

0.61 0.61
r 
NA n sin( )
1. Decrease wavelength  UV, Electronic microscopy
2. Increase α larger objective
3. Increase n  Oil immersion technology

A good quality microscope can be diffraction limited through out the field
 Match the resolution
250mm 0.61
System Power M  Mo Objective resolution r
Fe NA
With 1 Arc-Min eye acuity , the required power to solve object s at 250mm

250mm  1min 75um

Me  
s s 75um
Where s  M or 250mm

We would like a match of resolution between human eye and the

objective lens!
•Magnification > 230NA is called as
empty magnification! (Objective only
75um magnifies Airy disk!)
M  230 NA
0.61 / NA •Magnification < 230NA wastes the
objective optics! (Your eyes can’t see
more details than the objective)
 Kohler
illumination
(Bright field)

Control Brightness

Control Field Size

 Dark illumination
Illumination Pupil Imaging Pupil

Inverse opaque pupil

• Only the scattered light will pass through both
illumination pupil and imaging pupil.
• Useful to see the transparent or scattering object,
increasing the contrast by using darker background.
 Confocal Microscopy

• Only focused light pass through pin hole and accepted by the
detector.
• By using scanning mechanism to scan throughout the whole
sample– slow in speed.
• Could be used in combination with fluorescent microscopy.
• Can be used in transmission and reflection mode.
• Can reach up to a few hundreds micrometer below human skin
 Basic eye anatomy
• Sclera : The shell that makes the
“eye ball”
• Cornea: The transparent part of
Sclera that provides 2/3 focusing
power.
• Retina: Includes Rod and Cone as
night time and day time
photoreceptors.
• Fovea : The area where most Cone
concentrates.
• Lens: The shape of lens is changed
by ciliary muscle to focus, providing
resting 1/3 power.
• Iris: Controls the pupil diameter.
• Blind spot: Where there is neither
Rod nor Cone photoreceptors.
 The eye model

Unaccommodated eye Accommodated eye

Different eye models exist from very simple to very complicated.

Since the object and image space refractive indices are not the same, the
nodal point and principle points separate to each other.
 Accommodation

Far object Near object

Day and night responses curves of Eye

Day Peak Response:

555nm
Night Peak Response :
510nm
 Scene Luminance

• The Iris changes to change the Etendue.

• The Rod and Cone photoreceptor both have nonlinear
response. In which the Rod can even see individual
photons at the peak wavelength.
• The dimmest and brightest scene covers a range of 1010-
14,compared with the best film have 103-4 range.
 Refractive effects
• Emmetropic eye : a normal eye focus from 25cm
to infinity.
• Myopic eye: A nearsighted eye that can’t
accommodate at infinity.
• Hyperopic eye: A farsighted eye that can’t
accommodate at 25cm.
• Astigmatic eye : In which the cornea is not
rotationally symmetric.
• Presbyopia: Loss of accommodation due to the
loss of elasticity of the lens.
 Resolution and acuity
• Acuity decrease when pupil decrease due
to diffraction effect.
• Acuity also decrease when pupil increases
due to aberrations.
• Optimum acuity is for pupil diameter 2-
3mm
• The best acuity is 1 arc-min, marked as
12/12.
Snellen Fraction is applied to the corrected
eye visual acuity only !!
 Contrast sensitivity

Lmax  Lmin

Lmax  Lmin

Lmin Lmax

• The resolution power of eye relays on the contrast of the object.

• Minimum contrast to be visible is called as “threadshold modulation”.
• The inverse of “threadshold modulation” as a function of grating
frequency is called as “contrast sensitivity function”.
• Higher frequency lines needs more contrast to be resolved, but
surprisingly at the extreme low frequency the need for contrast
increases as well.
Finally, the Great Homework

Chapter 6 Problems 1,2,3,4,6,7,8