OpticalSystemsDesignwithZemaxOpticStudio Lecture1
OpticalSystemsDesignwithZemaxOpticStudio Lecture1
with Zemax
OpticStudio
Lecture 1
Course Outline
• Lecture 1: Introduction
• Lecture 2: Sequential Systems
• Lecture 3: Optimization
• Lecture 4: Tolerancing
• Lecture 5: Non-sequential & other stuff
Recommended Texts
• OpticStudio User Manual and Getting Started Using
OpticStudio (access from programme help)
• Introduction to Lens Design with Practical Zemax
Examples, Joseph M Geary (Willmann-Bell Inc.)
• Optical Systems Design, Robert Fischer & Bijana
Tadic(SPIE Press)
• Practical Computer-Aided Design, Gregory Hallock-
Smith (Willmann-Bell Inc.)
• Astronomical Optics, Dan Schroeder (Academic Press;
GoogleBooks)
• Optics, Jeff Hecht (Addison Wesley)
Also the Zemax knowledge base:
http://www.zemax.com/support/knowledgebase
Optical Systems Design 10
Optical Systems Design
‘Science or art of developing optical systems to
image, direct, analyse or measure light.’
• Includes camera lenses, telescopes, microscopes,
scanners, photometers, spectrographs,
interferometers, …
• Systems should be as free from geometrical optical
errors (aberrations) as possible.
• Correcting and controlling aberrations is one of the
main tasks of the optical designer (includes
performance evaluation and fabrication/tolerancing
issues).
Historical Note
• Lens design has changed significantly since
~1960 with the introduction of digital computers
and numerical optimisation.
• Equations describing aberrations of lens/mirror
systems are very non-linear functions of system
parameters (curvatures, spacings, refractive
indices, dispersions, …)
• Only a few specialised systems can be derived
analytically in exact closed-form solutions.
• Analytical design methods (Petzval, Seidel) were
historically based on a mathematical treatment
of geometrical imagery and primary aberrations
– still useful for initial designs.
• Numerical evaluation methods ray trace many
light rays from object to image space.
Optical Systems Design 12
Seidel (3rd order) Aberrations
1. Spherical aberration
2. Coma
3. Astigmatism
4. Field curvature
5. Distortion
Object Image
Plane Plane
Ray bundles
Surface Parameters
• Surface number
• Radius of curvature (R)
• Thickness to the next surface (t)
• Glass type in the next medium (or Air if blank)
• Aspheric data (if any)
• Aperture size (semi-diameter D)
• Tilt and decenter data (if any)
System Properties
•
Exercises: Lecture 1
• Install Zemax Optic Studio(or the
OpticStudio demo) on your PC
• Use the lens data editor to input the
optical prescription of the biconvex
singlet from the lecture
• Investigate how the focus depends
on wavelength and lens curvatures
• Investigate how the image quality
depends on the thickness of the lens
Lecture 2
Objectives: Lecture 2
At the end of this lecture you should:
1. Be able to use ZEMAX to design and optimise a
simple singlet lens to specified parameters.
2. Understand the use of meridional plane layouts,
spot diagrams, and ray fan plots to evaluate
performance.
3. Design and optimise a Cassegrain reflecting
telescope to specified parameters.
4. Understand the way that conic and higher order
surfaces are specified in ZEMAX.
5. Understand how to achromatise a doublet lens.
• So EPD = 25mm.
Spots
Layout
Optical
Ray
Path
Fan
Difference
I: Layout
Coma
0 deg 5 deg
Field Curvature
0 deg 5 deg
0 deg 5 deg
Longitudinal Colour
Dispersion:
n d −1
Vd =
n 2 − n1
d=587.6 nm
1=486.1 nm
2=656.3 nm
[Abbé number]
Use easily
available glasses
when possible:
BK7, LLF1, F2,
SF2, SF57, SK16,
KzFSN4. CaFl
often used as
crown. Large Δn is
good.
Final optimization
is usually done on
actual melt data.
Aspheric Surfaces
• Most optical surfaces are spherical
• By far the easiest surfaces to manufacture using
conventional polishing techniques
• General rotationally symmetric optical surface has
departure from plane (sag) given by:
ch 2
z= 2 2 1/2
+ Ah 4 + Bh 6 + Ch8 + Dh10
1+[1−[(1+ k)c h ]
Summary: Lecture 2
• Sequential ray tracing is the main mode of Zemax
for the design of optical systems.
• Zemax has a range of optimising tools to improve
the performance of the basic design.
• The major tools for assessing performance are the
layout plots, the spot diagrams and the ray fan
plots.
• All the main Seidel aberrations have
characteristic forms in these plots which can be
used to decide how to improve the design.
• Careful choice of glasses is required to remove
longitudinal and lateral colour effects.
Optimisation
Lecture 3
Objectives: Lecture 3
At the end of this lecture you should:
1. Understand the use of Petzval curvature to
balance lens components
2. Know how different aberrations depend on
field angle or pupil zone
3. Understand the basics of the Zemax merit
function and the Zemax operands
4. Be able to progressively optimise a
complex lens system to achieve the final
performance requirements
φ
• For simple lenses P = −∑ n where φ is the
power of each lens (reciprocal of focal
length) and n is the refractive index
• Minimizing Petzval curvature produces a
flat, anastigmatic image plane
Optimisation Process
• Enter a starting lens configuration
• Allow Zemax to change lens
parameters to improve performance
• Requires a measure of performance –
merit function (error function)
• Optimisation tries to minimise merit
function (gradient search or Hammer)
Zemax Operands
Optimisation Techniques
Early Optimisations
Final Optimisations
• Shrink polychromatic spots for all field angles
• Use several wavelengths across the band
• Re-optimise using wavefront OPDs in exit
pupil rather than transverse ray errors (spots)
on image surface
• Allow small amount of paraxial defocussing
• Include any deliberate mechanical
vignetting
• Take a critical look at the final lens & its
performance
Intermediate Optimisation
Balancing Aberrations
Exercises: Lecture 3
• Repeat the analysis of a Cooke triplet to work at
F/3.5 which has a 52mm focal length, starting
from COOKE-LECT3-EARLY.ZMX on course www
page (Lecture 3).
• Assume wavelengths of 0.45,0.50,0.55,0.60 & 0.65
µm and field angles of 0o,9o,16o & 22o
• Place the aperture stop between the 2nd and 3rd
lenses and use LaFN21 & SF53 for the glass types
• Optimize the performance on the paraxial focal
plane, so that the lens still performs well when
stopped down
Lecture 4
Objectives: Lecture 4
At the end of this lecture you should:
1. Understand the reason for tolerancing and
its relation to typical manufacturing errors
2. Be able to perform a Sensitivity Analysis
and Inverse Sensitivity Analysis on a new
design
3. Be able to interpret the data from a Monte
Carlo tolerancing analysis of a new design
I: Sensitivity Analysis
• The sensitivity analysis considers each
defined tolerance sequentially
(independent).
• Parameters are adjusted to the limits of
the tolerance range, and then the
optimum value of each compensator is
determined.
• A table is generated listing the
contribution of each tolerance to the
performance loss.
Zemax Tolerancing
• Choose Tolerancing from the
menu bar
• Select the mode: Sensitivity
(default)
• Check Force Ray Aiming On
(slower but more accurate)
• Select the Criteria: RMS Spot
Radius
• Set the Compensator: Paraxial
focus (default)
• Select Monte-Carlo to check
number of runs (20 OK)
• Check Display -> Show
Compensators (to see how
much focus changes for
example).
Focus compensation
Tolerancing Results
Worst Offenders
Monte Carlo
March 16, 2015 Optical Systems Design 22
Summary: Lecture 4
• Tolerancing is a critical step to ensure that
a lens design can be manufactured and
to predict its expected performance
• Difficult because it involves complex
relationships across different disciplines
• Zemax has many very powerful design
tolerancing capabilities
• Important to understand how Zemax
does the sensitivity analysis before you
can blindly use it.
Exercises: Lecture 4
• Perform tolerance analysis of the Cooke
triplet lens designed in the exercise for
Lecture 3
• Use precision mechanical dimensional
tolerances and λ/20 RMS surface form error
• What is the mean increase in RMS spot
radius from the Monte Carlo simulation ?
• Which are the three most critical
dimensional tolerances ?
Lecture 5
Objectives: Lecture 5
At the end of this lecture you should:
Co-ordinate Breaks
• Non-axially symmetric systems where surfaces are
tilted or decentered require the use of co-ordinate
breaks
• Rotate/shift local co-ordinate frame
• Positive rotation (in ZEMAX) is clockwise as viewed
along +ve axis direction
• Subsequent co-ordinate breaks refer to the newly
defined axis orientations
• If a co-ordinate break is placed immediately before
an optical surface, it can be useful to put another
one with opposite sign immediately after, thus
undoing the tilt etc
• There are now simple tools in the Lens Data icon bar
to tilt/decentre surfaces and add fold mirrors
FIELDROTATOR-LECT5.ZMX
March 17, 2015 Optical Systems Design 5
Non-Sequential Systems
• No predefined sequence of surfaces
• Objects encountered determined solely by physical
positions of surfaces and directions of rays
• Co-ordinate system is global
• Can deal with Total Internal Reflection (TIR), stray
light and illumination systems
• Required for prisms, beamsplitters, light pipes,
faceted (array) objects etc
• In some cases need mixed sequential/non-
sequential ray tracing
Sequential Non-Sequential
[PRISM-SEQ-LECT5.ZMX] [PRISM-NONSEQ-LECT5.ZMX]
Non-Sequential Systems
PENTAPRISM-NONSEQ-LECT5.ZMX
Can convert from sequential design using Tools -> Miscellaneous -> Convert to
NSC Group (need to first move STOP to front surface)
March 17, 2015 Optical Systems Design 8
Physical Optics Propagation
• Geometrical ray tracing is an incomplete
description of light propagation
• POP uses diffraction calculations to propagate a
light modelled as a wavefront through an optical
system
• Wavefront is modeled by an array of complex
amplitudes which is user-definable in terms of its
dimension, sampling and aspect ratio
• Applications include fibre coupling, diffraction by
apertures and beam irradiance calculations
Gibbs Phenomenon
GIBBS-LECT5.ZMX
March 17, 2015 Optical Systems Design 10
Fibre Coupling
FIBRE-LECT5.ZMX
March 17, 2015 Optical Systems Design 11
Array Elements
• Rectangular array
of spherical lenses
• Modelled as a user-
defined surface
(DLL)
• LENSLET-LECT5.ZMX
Image Simulation
• Object scene is represented by a source bitmap
(.BMP or .JPG)
• Rays traced using the defined object through
the lens to the image plane
• At detection surface place a pixellated detector
which receives the rays and builds up an image
of the source bitmap as seen through the lens
Optical Materials
• Over 100 optical glasses available worldwide
• Each manufacturer has a list of “preferred” glasses that are
most frequently melted and usually available from stock
• Generally can substitute similar glasses from different
manufacturers (and re-optimise)
• Material quality defined by tolerances on spectral transmission,
index of refraction, dispersion, striae grades (AA/A/B),
homogeneity (H1-H4), and birefringence (NSK/NSSK)
• Tighter than standard optical tolerances require additional
cost and time
• May be more economical to add a lens to the design in order
to avoid expensive glasses
• Some glasses (e.g. SF-59) made much less frequently than
others (e.g. BK-7)
Exercises: Lecture 5
• Work your way through some
of the example Zemax files,
evaluating their performance
and making sure that you
understand the prescription
data.