stop shifts on system aberration. The results are shown in Figure 4.17.
Clearly, according to Figure 4.17, the spherical aberration remains unchanged as predicted by Eq. (4.44a). For small shifts, the amount of coma produced is in proportion to the shift. Since there is no coma initially, the only aberration that can influence the astigmatism and field curvature is the pre-existing spherical aberration. As indicated in Eqs. (4.44c) and (4.44d), there should be a quadratic dependence of the astigmatism and field curvature on stop position. This is indeed borne out by the analysis in Figure 4.17. Similarly, the distortion shows a linear trend with stop position, mainly influenced by the initial astigmatism and field curvature that is present.
Although, in practice, these stop shift equations may not find direct use currently in optimising real designs, the underlying principles embodied are, nonetheless, important. Manipulation of the stop position is a key part in the optimisation of complex optical systems and, in particular, multi-element camera lenses. In these complex systems, the pupil is often situated between groups of lenses. In this case, the designer needs to be aware also of the potential for vignetting, should individual lens elements be incorrectly sized.
Figure 4.16 Simple symmetric lens system with stop shift.
Figure 4.17 Impact of stop shift for simple symmetric lens system.
The stop shift equations provide a general insight into the impact of stop position on aberration. Most significant is the hierarchy of aberrations. For example, no fundamental manipulation of spherical aberration may be accomplished by the manipulation of stop position. Otherwise, there some special circumstances it would be useful for the reader to be aware of. For example, in the case of a spherical mirror, with the object or image lying at the infinite conjugate, the placement of the stop at the mirror's centre of curvature altogether removes its contribution to coma and astigmatism; the reader may care to verify this.
4.6 Abbe Sine Condition
Long before the advent of powerful computer ray tracing models, there was a powerful incentive to develop simple rules of thumb to guide the optical design process. This was particularly true for the complex task of ameliorating system aberrations. Working in the nineteenth century, Ernst Abbe set out the Abbe sine condition, which directly relates the object and image space numerical apertures for a ‘perfect’, unaberrated system. Essentially, the Abbe sine condition articulates a specific requirement for a system to be free of spherical aberration and coma, i.e. aplanatic. The Abbe sine condition is expressed for an infinitesimal object and image height and its justification is illustrated in Figure 4.18.
In the representation in Figure 4.18 we trace a ray from the object to a point, P, located on a reference sphere whose centre lies on axis at the axial position of the object and whose vertex lies at the entrance pupil. At the same time, we also trace a marginal ray from the object location to the entrance pupil. The conjugate point to P, designated, P′, is located nominally at the exit pupil and on a sphere whose centre lies at the paraxial image location. For there to be perfect imaging, then the OPD associated with the passage of the marginal ray must be zero. Furthermore, the OPD of the ray from object to image must also be zero. It is also further assumed that the relative OPD of the object to image ray when compared to the marginal ray is zero on passage from points P to P′. This assumption is justified for an infinitesimal object height. Therefore, it is possible to compute the total object to image OPD by simply summing the path differences relative to the marginal ray between the object and point P and between the image and point P′. For there to be perfect imaging this difference must, of course be zero.
Figure 4.18 Abbe sine condition.
n is the refractive index in object space and n′ is the refractive index in image space.
Equation 4.46 is one formulation of the Abbe sine condition which, nominally, applies for all values of θ and θ′, including paraxial angles. If we represent the relevant paraxial angles in object and image space as θp and θp' then the Abbe sine condition may be rewritten as:
(4.47)
One specific scenario occurs where the object or image lies at the infinite conjugate. For example, one might imagine an object located on axis at the first focal point. In this case, the height of any ray within the collimated beam in image space is directly proportional to the numerical aperture associated with the input ray.
Figure 4.19 illustrates the application of the Abbe sine condition for a specific example. As highlighted previously, the sine condition effectively seeks out the aplanatic condition in an optical system. In this example, a meniscus lens is to be designed to fulfil the aplanatic condition. However, its conjugate parameter is adjusted around the ideal value and the spherical aberration and coma plotted as a function of the conjugate parameter. In addition, the departure from the Abbe sine condition is also plotted in the same way. All data is derived from detailed ray tracing and values thus derived are presented as relative values to fit reasonably into the graphical presentation. It is clear that elimination of spherical aberration and coma corresponds closely to the fulfilment of the Abbe sine condition.
The form of the Abbe sine condition set out in Eq. (4.46) is interesting. It may be compared directly to the Helmholtz equation which has a similar form. However, instead of a relationship based on the sine of the angle, the Helmholtz equation is defined by a relationship based on the tangent of the angle:
It is quite apparent that the two equations present something of a contradiction. The Helmholtz equation sets the condition for perfect imaging in an ideal system for all pairs of conjugates. However, the Abbe sine condition relates to aberration free imaging for a specific conjugate pair. This presents us with an important conclusion. It is clear that aberration free imaging for a specific conjugate (Abbe) fundamentally
