Propagation of aberrated wavefronts using a ray transfer matrix

Area of Science:

• Optics and Photonics
• Wavefront Propagation Modeling

Background:

• Aberrated wavefronts pose challenges in optical system design.
• Accurate modeling of light propagation is crucial for optical performance.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a ray transfer matrix method for calculating aberrated wavefront propagation.
• To provide methods for paraxial, higher-order, and exact tangent cases.

Main Methods:

• Representing wavefronts using local surface normals (ray bundles).
• Transferring rays through homogeneous refractive index media.
• Generating wavefront shape from ray slopes and positions.

Main Results:

• Developed calculation methods for paraxial, higher-order, and exact tangent ray propagation.
• Demonstrated wavefront shape generation from ray data.
• Validated methods against an analytical approach via numerical example.

Conclusions:

• The ray transfer matrix method effectively models aberrated wavefront propagation.
• The developed techniques offer versatile tools for optical system analysis.
• Numerical comparisons confirm the accuracy of the proposed methods.