Tables of the Modulation Transfer Function of a Defocused Perfect Lens

Abstract

Tables are presented giving the MTF of an aberrationless defocused lens with circular aperture for objects illuminated with incoherent monochromatic light. MTF values are given to six decimal places for reduced spatial frequencies nu(r) = 0(0.01)1 and defocusing Delta = 0(0.1)0.4, 0.5(0.5)5, 10(5)50, except that 5/Delta is an upper limit on nu(r). Here Delta is measured in units of Rayleigh's (1/4) lambda tolerance on defocusing. The integral of the MTF and (MTF)(2) are also given for Delta </= 5. The numerical integration was performed by Simpson's rule over most of the range and by series expansion over the rest. An error analysis is appended. Tables of the line spread function for the focused case are also given.