Nonlinear ray tracing in focused fields, part 3. Monochromatic wavefront aberration: tutorial.

Area of Science:

• Optics and Photonics
• Computational Physics
• Optical Engineering

Background:

• Monochromatic aberrations in lenses distort optical performance.
• Previous work established a flux tracing algorithm for optical analysis.
• Modeling lens aberrations requires distinct numerical approaches for thin and ideal lenses.

Purpose of the Study:

• To examine nonlinear rays passing through a lens focus with monochromatic aberrations.
• To compare aberration modeling in thin and ideal lens numerical propagation algorithms.
• To explore the relationship between classical wavefront aberration theory and nonlinear tracing.

Main Methods:

• Utilized a previously developed flux tracing algorithm.
• Modeled lens aberrations using Zernike polynomials for spherical, defocus, comatic, astigmatism, trefoil, and quadrafoil aberrations.
• Applied additive phase terms to transmission functions (thin lens) and pupil functions (ideal lens) to simulate aberrations.

Main Results:

• Remarkably similar results were obtained for both thin and ideal lens aberration modeling despite differing methods.
• Nonlinear ray tracing successfully modeled various monochromatic aberrations.
• Demonstrated the potential of nonlinear ray tracing for analyzing complex optical systems.

Conclusions:

• Nonlinear ray tracing provides valuable insights into optical phenomena, particularly lens aberrations.
• The study highlights the robustness and applicability of the flux tracing algorithm across different lens models.
• Confirms the utility of Zernike polynomials in modeling a wide range of monochromatic aberrations.