During the last few years, innovative optical design strategies, which consist of generating and controlling the image mapping, have been successfully developed to produce high-resolution digital imagers. This design strategy has increased the interest in high-resolution camera, which is used for absolute measurement and high-resolution wide-angle lenses. These new generations of panoramic lenses include catadioptric panoramic lenses, panoramic annular lenses, visible/IR fisheye lenses, anamorphic wide-angle attachment, and visible/IR panomorph lenses. Because a wide angle lens images a large field of view on a limited number of pixel, a systematic pixel to angle mapping will help to efficiently use each pixel into the field of view. The various relevant tradeoffs will be detailed and the advantages and disadvantages of panoramic lenses will be discussed. A particular concern in the optical design of a panoramic imager is the uniformity of the image quality. Because two hemispherical images can be digitally stitched together to form a complete 360-degrees X 360-degrees image, the performance of the lens at 90 degrees (preferably more than 90 degrees) of the imager is just as important as the centre of the image. Lateral colour, edge compression (distortion) and severe drop-off of the relative illumination become also important image defects and may cause seams in the immersive image. Finally we will present various modern scenarios where high-resolution panoramic imager will be most than welcome.

A refractive astigmatic lens is employed to generate a focus error signal (FES) for servo control in general optical pickup. In this paper, a diffractive optical element (DOE) is designed to implement optical functions of astigmatic focusing for a MEMS-based miniature optical pickup at 650nm wavelength. We present a diffractive astigmatic lens with its internal zones and external zones quantized into four, two phase levels, respectively based on fabrication consideration. The optical simulation based on scalar diffraction theory shows the efficiency of this quantized lens for astigmatic focusing and a comparison of the FES in the optical pickup system has been plotted.

Research and development efforts to improve the performance of telecentric lens design for large-format cameras are driven by the ever-increasing deployment of these types of systems into the industrial imaging arena. These lens designs typically have stringent requirements for contrast and resolution (>30% at 100lp/mm) across large sensor sizes (up to 90mm) while maintaining both object- and image-space telecentricity (0.1° object-space, 0.2° image-space). This paper explores various characteristics related to large-format telecentric lens designs and performance. In particular, details around advantages of afocal finite-conjugate imaging, mathematic expression for chromatic telecentricity, and desensitization of working distance variance are discussed with reference to geometric optics and aberration theory. Improvement of chromatic telecentricity and relief of requirement on image-distance accuracy are shown with graphics and MTF plots. Product parameter / performance data is provided as an example.

Some all-spherical designs are presented that are variations of the positive-negative-positive triplet with the stop at the front. Examples include a compact wide angle (60° field of view) near-telecentric lens, as well as super-achromatic, telecentric lenses for the visible to infrared (450-1000nm or 450-2300 nm) and mid-wave and thermal infrared. This design form, loosely thought of as a boosted version of the rear landscape lens, has provided a useful optimization starting point for a variety of designs with different requirements.

Nowadays most industrial and laboratory motion measuring equipment makes use of optical encoders to measure rotation and linear displacements with sub-micrometrical resolution. In this work we introduce a new design of an optical encoder based on a non diffractive beam, a binary amplitude grating and a monolithic photodetector. Two theoretical models of the system are proposed and implemented to obtain numerical results. The performance of the design is also investigated through experimental measurements. Finally, the experimental results are compared with the models predictions.

Saddle-point construction (SPC) is a new method to insert lenses into an existing design. With SPC, by inserting and extracting lenses new system shapes can be obtained very rapidly, and we believe that, if added to the optical designer's arsenal, this new tool can significantly increase design productivity in certain situations. Despite the fact that the theory behind SPC contains mathematical concepts that are still unfamiliar to many optical designers, the practical implementation of the method is actually very easy and the method can be fully integrated with all other traditional design tools. In this work we will illustrate the use of SPC with examples that are very simple and illustrate the essence of the method. The method can be used essentially in the same way even for very complex systems with a large number of variables, in situations where other methods for obtaining new system shapes do not work so well.

Local optimization algorithms, when they are optimized only for speed, have in certain situations an unpredictable behavior: starting points very close to each other lead after optimization to different minima. In these cases, the sets of points, which, when chosen as starting points for local optimization, lead to the same minimum (the so-called basins of attraction), have a fractal-like shape. Before it finally converges to a local minimum, optimization started in a fractal region first displays chaotic transients. The sensitivity to changes in the initial conditions that leads to fractal basin borders is caused by the discontinuous evolution path (i.e. the jumps) of local optimization algorithms such as the damped-least-squares method with insufficient damping. At the cost of some speed, the fractal character of the regions can be made to vanish, and the downward paths become more predictable. The borders of the basins depend on the implementation details of the local optimization algorithm, but the saddle points in the merit function landscape always remain on these borders.

The aspheric reflecting surface types studied by L. Mertz for correcting certain aberrations of a spherical primary telescope mirror are examined and some properties of these surfaces are presented. For the one-surface aspheric that corrects spherical aberration of all orders, a 6th order equation for the surface shape is derived. For the set of two aspheric surfaces correcting spherical aberration and coma of all orders, a set of differential equations have been developed to describe the surface shapes. The off-axis imaging performance is derived from the on-axis imaging properties and compared with ray trace results.

A mathematical approach for the third order solution for a general zoom lens design is proposed. The design starts with a first-order layout. Lens elements with the proper refracting power are placed at the proper distances to meet the physical constraints of the intended lens system. For the third-order design stage, a matrix notation called "Aberration Polynomial," which clarifies the linearity of the transformation from a normal thin group configuration to a general thin group configuration by pupil shift and conjugate shift theory is implemented. The purpose of the method is correcting low-order aberrations during the preliminary design of zoom lenses. The goal is to mathematically reduce to zero the four aberration coefficients of the third-order (spherical aberration, coma, astigmatism, and distortion) rather than searching for a minimum by commercial design software. Once this theory is proven and accepted, it becomes possible to determine how many groups are needed for a particular optical system. The method of aberration polynomials establishes the number of groups needed to correct a given number of aberrations at a given number of zoom positions. Furthermore, it provides the shape or bending of the elements, from where it will be possible to continue to optimize with standard methods.

The normal visual system provides a wide field of view apparently at high resolution. The wide field is continuously monitored at low resolution for navigation and detection of objects of interest. These objects are sampled using the high-resolution fovea, applying a temporal multiplexing scheme. Most vision impairments that cause low vision impact upon only one of the components; the peripheral low-resolution wide field or the central high-resolution fovea. The loss of one of these components prevents the interplay of central and peripheral vision needed for normal function and causes disability. Traditional low-vision aids improve the impacted component, but usually at a cost of a significant loss in the surviving component. For example, magnifying devices increase resolution but reduce the field of view, while minifying devices increase the field of view but reduce resolution. A general optical engineering approach - vision multiplexing - is presented. Vision multiplexing seeks to provide both the wide field of view and the high-resolution information in ways that could be accessed and interpreted by the visual system. The use of various optical and electro-optical methods in the development of a number of new visual aids, all of which apply vision multiplexing to restore the interplay of high-resolution and wide-angle vision using eye movements in a natural way, will be described. Vision-multiplexing devices at various stages of development and testing illustrate the successes and difficulties in applying this approach for patients with tunnel vision, hemianopia (half blindness), and visual acuity loss (usually due to central retinal disease).

We celebrate the two hundred years of successful use of the Fourier theorem in optics. However, there is a great enigma associated with the Fourier transform integral. It is one of the most pervasively productive and useful tool of physics and optics because its foundation is based on the superposition of harmonic functions and yet we have never declared it as a principle of physics for valid reasons. And, yet there are a good number of situations where we pretend it to be equivalent to the superposition principle of physics, creating epistemological problems of enormous magnitude. The purpose of the paper is to elucidate the problems while underscoring the successes and the elegance of the Fourier theorem, which are not explicitly discussed in the literature. We will make our point by taking six major engineering fields of optics and show in each case why it works and under what restricted conditions by bringing in the relevant physics principles. The fields are (i) optical signal processing, (ii) Fourier transform spectrometry, (iii) classical spectrometry of pulsed light, (iv) coherence theory, (v) laser mode locking and (vi) pulse broadening. We underscore that mathematical Fourier frequencies, not being physical frequencies, cannot generate real physical effects on our detectors. Appreciation of this fundamental issue will open up ways to be innovative in many new optical instrument designs. We underscore the importance of always validating our design platforms based on valid physics principles (actual processes undergoing in nature) captured by an appropriate hypothesis based on diverse observations. This paper is a comprehensive view of the power and limitations of Fourier Transform by summarizing a series of SPIE conference papers presented during 2003-2007.

Although hybrid ( i.e. refractive-diffractive ) surfaces are in common use in optical design there are several phenomena which affect design MTF that are not routinely modeled in current commercial versions of optical design software. Typically the details of the diffractive structure are not taken into account and rays are traced through the hybrid surface employing a vector grating equation which uses the phase gradient associated with the diffractive definition to calculate a local grating spacing and orientation and from this grating information a 'diffracted ray' angle. This geometrical-optics based procedure has limitations; (1)it considers only the design diffraction order, (2)it does not take into account the sub-aperturing effect whereby color correction is reduced along with zone count , and (3) the model used does not generate an exact blaze profile. In this paper we discuss progress in application of diffraction-based beam propagation tools in combination with a physical definition of the diffractive structure to more accurately model these secondary effects on design MTF. Results are given for some simple lenses and also the effects to be expected for a more complex zoom lens.

The traditional approach to optical system engineering separates the scene, optics, and detector as static entities, optimizing the design to meet subsystem specifications of aperture, field size, encircled energy, read noise, dynamic range, and other electro-optical properties. The Scene-Based Sensor Model (SBSM) represents a different approach by simulating the scene, optics and detector as a cohesive model using commercially available optical ray-tracing software. The objects are modeled as temporally changing entities, with characteristics including reflectance, absorbance, fluorescence, and scattering. Likewise, the detectors are modeled with their properties of temporal noise, spatial non-uniformity, nonlinear gain, and offset drift. The end-to-end simulation produces "photons-to-bits" analysis applicable to a variety of optical systems. First results are illustrated with ray tracing simulation of moving fluorescent objects and laser induced breakdown spectroscopy.

We discuss issues associated with computation and measurement of the spectral response function and spectral uniformity of pushbroom imaging spectrometers. Methods for accurate computation are presented and advantages or pitfalls of particular approaches are identified. We demonstrate the effect to which partial coherence effects can be neglected or approximated through simpler incoherent computations. The results are illustrated with spectral calibration data from a complete sensor.

A pupil engineered with a polarization vortex can have a profound impact on certain classes of optical systems. This paper describes the recent history, ongoing activity, and applications of polarization vortices in optical system design, with special attention to the impact of a vortex filter placed in the pupil of an illumination system. Two systems of particular interest for these types of fields are confocal microscopy, in which a dark field imaging mode is accessible, and immersion lithography, in which azimuthal illumination is favored.

A variety of interesting polarization effects can be observed using a parallel-face window placed under symmetric stress of order m = 3 and illuminated with polarized light. Such windows, when placed under sufficient stress, can produce rings of alternating vortex and non-vortex fields. When light is brought to a focus, one component of circular polarization forms two nearly diffraction limited focal spots with axial separation larger than the usual depth of focus. We analyze and experimentally test these phenomena using interferometric methods as well as a Strehl ratio model and conclude by discussing applications to optical imaging.

To analyze ghost effects in optical systems including decentred coatings with thickness variations, polarized light and interactions with object and image planes is a difficult task. Thanks to a battery of tools especially developed in the last ten years and applied to many different situations, it is possible to do such jobs in a quick and elegant manner. As an example, we shall consider optical relay lenses used for photolithography. The object plane is the reticle; The image plane is the wafer.

We propose a novel method to correct the spherical and coma aberration using a hybrid element (refractive-diffractive). The refractive surface is used to correct the coma, we obtain this condition curving the second principal plane and centred it on the axial point image. The diffractive element is used to correct the spherical aberration using an exact ray trace and the diffractive coefficients as variables. The optimization routine is no required. This method can be used for any conjugates position.

Studies on adaptive lenses formed of two transparent elastic surfaces with a transparent liquid medium between them have focused mostly on the characterization, analysis and the optical performance of the proposed lenses. No attention, however, has been given to the mechanical design to generate a user-friendly functional mounting as well as being adaptable to conventional optical systems. This work, therefore, presents the design and manufacturing processes of the parts of the mounting for a biconvex adaptive lens with a 20 mm diameter. It also presents an analysis of the membranes used as elastic surfaces as well as images formation of the proposed lens.

Here, we consider one of the most important problems related to optimizing the performance data of a new acoustooptical spectrometer for the analysis of radio-astronomical signals. The main attention is paid to estimating two factors governing the dynamic range of that spectrometer. At first, we determine the influence of the acoustic attenuation along a large-aperture acousto-optical cell on potential levels of lobes in focal plane of the integrating lens and then describe capabilities of the incident light beam apodization for increasing the dynamic range of spectrometer. These studies lie in a line with the program of developing metrological equipment for Mexican Large Millimeter Telescope.

The new combined optical pick-up head for recording and playback of information on DVD and BD format discs was developed. The same objective is used for both channels. It consists of the objective lens and Holographic Optical Element. In this work we present the main results of the studies of the possibility to manufacture the HOE included in objective of BD/DVD combined optical pick-up head in the dependence on objective lens glass type.

A compact zoom lens design for cell phone is presented. A three groups lens system with five lens element is designed for cell phone camera with 3M pixels and 2.5~3X optical zoom. The first lens is a negative lens with a concave surface facing the object so that, when used for a long focal length, the rear principle plane is moved forwards to shorten the total length of the lens. A positive lens group composed of three lens elements is arranged at the second lens group. By control the optical power of the second lens group, the distortion can be reduced and also shortens the moving distance of the second lens group while zooming. The fifth lens in the third lens group is a positive lens to control the incident angle entering the photosensitive element. It is used for focusing when the object distance has changed.

A novel X-ray tracing simulation tool XTrace has been developed recently in order to calculate the beam properties from the X-ray source (bending magnet, undulator, wiggler, ...) through all optical elements (slit, filter, window, mirror, crystal monochromator, multilayer, ...) and the sample to the detector. In XTrace, the diffraction by a perfect crystal is described by the dynamical theory taking into account refraction and absorption effects. The code has been used to simulate the X-ray beamline of the Synchrotron Laboratory for Environmental Studies (Synchrotron Umwelt-Labor, SUL) at ANKA. XTrace has been successfully used to simulate precisely the beam parameters such as position, size, divergence, photon flux, transmission, heat load, etc. at any distance from the source. For a better insight it is also possible to visualize the beam profile, energy spectrum, transmission spectrum, intensity distribution, power density, heat load, foot print, DuMond diagram, ray propagation diagram, etc. An excellent agreement between measured and simulated flux intensities over the whole energy range at the sample position for the X-ray beamline SUL has been found. XTrace has been proven to be a reliable, powerful, fast and easy to use tool for describing existing and designing and optimizing new X-ray beamlines in the future.

This research proposes a newly developed method to high zoom lens for mobile phone use, which the overall length is restricted in mobile phone size acceptable. Generally speaking, the optical design with liquid lens might be more complicated in optimization than traditional optics; not only because aspherical coefficient in liquid lens element is difficult to be defined and measured, but also because efficient optics layout needs more efforts to study in the near future. The paper mainly utilizes liquid lens in order to short total length; two liquid lens elements must be included. Besides consider total length, Lateral aberration also is very important. Lateral aberration will play a significant role in the Modulation Transfer function (MTF), so, the optical design will be able to arise very big, and that the many kinds of chromatics aberration with two groups of liquid lens. Using Digital Signal Processing technology principal factor why this also is.