Third-order aberration fields of pupil decentered optical systems

Area of Science:

• Optical Engineering
• Aberration Theory
• System Optics

Background:

• Axially symmetric optical systems are well-understood.
• Analyzing off-axis optical systems with decentered pupils presents significant challenges.
• Existing methods often require complex surface-level data.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a simplified method for calculating third-order aberration coefficients in pupil-decentered optical systems.
• To reveal nodal aberration characteristics using minimal system parameters.
• To provide a more convenient analytical approach for optical designers.

Main Methods:

• Introduction of a transformed pupil vector into aberration expansions.
• Derivation of aberration coefficients through third order for decentered systems.
• Utilizing pupil decentration vector and axially symmetric aberration coefficients.

Main Results:

• Obtained third-order aberration coefficients for pupil-decentered off-axis systems.
• Demonstrated that nodal aberration characteristics can be derived solely from the pupil decentration vector and the original system's aberration coefficients.
• Eliminated the need for individual surface parameters (e.g., radius of curvature, decenter) and shifted aberration field centers in the analysis.

Conclusions:

• The proposed method offers a convenient and simplified approach to analyzing aberrations in decentered optical systems.
• This technique reduces the complexity of aberration calculations by focusing on pupil decentration and established aberration coefficients.
• The findings are valuable for efficient optical system design and analysis.