Nonspecific functional form surface profiles in the optical design process

摘要

Abstract: The use of relatively simple functional form optical surface profiles has, for many years, been the standard way in which optical systems have been designed. A spherical surface profile first order design may have some or all of its spherical surface profiles changed to conic and/or polynomial aspheric profiles during the optimization process in order to add needed degrees of freedom to the design. Traditionally, surface profiles have either been picked for their functional simplicity (spheres, conics and/or polynomial aspherics) or they have been custom derived to fit a specific optical geometry. This paper takes a somewhat different design approach for systems in which 'standard' optical surface profiles do not yield the required optical performance and for which custom surface profiles, based on optical system geometry, cannot easily be derived. The approach starts with a 'best' design based upon spherical, conic and/or aspheric surface profiles. A non-specific functional form surface profile is then added to the standard surface profile. The retention of the 'standard' surface profile maintains a numerical legacy to the starting point design while a non- specific functional form surface profile is added to and reshapes the surface. The resultant more general surface profile yields a design which may more closely meet the system optical performance requirements. This design approach will be demonstrated with an optical design example. !0