Lens Design (4 units). Fundamentals of optical system design and optimization; exact and paraxial ray tracing; aberration theory; chromatic and monochromatic aberrations. Prerequisite: OPTI 502.

Meeting Times
Lectures: MWF 8:30-9:45

Course Outline
This course will cover the main techniques needed to carry out the layout, design, image evaluation, and tolerancing of lens systems. The stress will be upon working with practical and logical examples of problems using several available computer design programs. Experience with more than one program during the semester will be required.

This is a four-credit course, requiring significant computational laboratory work on the part of the student. Meeting times for the class as listed in the schedule are for three times a week for 75 minutes. The actual number of class meeting times per week will vary, depending upon the material being covered, and will often be much less than the listed hours. Significant additional laboratory time, requiring approximately five to ten hours per week of the student's time, will be needed to satisfactorily complete the course. Students will be expected to work on lens design problems and report results in a timely manner and in a format similar to that normally encountered in industrial projects. Available commercial lens design programs include CODE V, OSLO and ZEMAX.

Topics to be covered:

• Introduction to the design process.
• Use of computers in design.
• Definition of design parameters.
• Ray tracing methods.
• Review of Gaussian Optics.
• Layout of lens systems.
• Optical materials.
• Chromatic aberrations.
• Aberration theory.
• Evaluation of aberrations.
• Presentation of design information.
• Geometrical image formation.
• Diffraction image computation.
• Optical Transfer Function.
• Image evaluation techniques.
• Tolerancing techniques.
• Use of aspheric surfaces.
• Reflective system design.

• Ray tracing methods.
• Layout of a simple system.
• Design of a contact doublet.
• Design of an air-spaced doublet.
• Analysis of a singlet wide field element.
• Design of a triplet lens.
• Design of a Gauss type objective.
• Tolerancing of lens designs.
• Design of a Cassegrain.
• Design of a Schmidt system (depending upon class progress).

• Homework
• Midterm exam
• Final Course Summary
• Class Attendance

• R.R. Shannon: The Art and Science of Optical Design (Cambridge).
• R. Kingslake and R. Barry Johnson: Lens Design Fundamentals (Elsevier).