Analytical illuminance and caustic surface calculations in geometrical optics

Abstract

The analytical illuminance monitoring technique provides an exact expression within the geometrical optics limit for the illuminance over an image surface for light that has passed through a multiinterface optical system. The light source may be collimated rays, a point source, or an extended source. The geometrical energy distributions can be graphically displayed as a line or point spread function over selected image planes. The analytical illuminance technique gives a more accurate and efficient computer technique for evaluating the energy distribution over an image surface than the traditional scanning of the spot diagram mathematically with a narrow slit. The analytical illuminance monitoring technique also provides a closed form expression for the caustic surface of the optical system. It is shown by examining the caustic surface for anumber of lens systems from the literature that the caustic is a valuable merit function for evaluating the aberrations and the size of the focal region.