Conference Agenda

Zoom lens design can be particularly challenging because the aberrations of the lens groups change as the lens zooms. The changes of the third order aberrations of each lens group between the zoom configurations are related through stop and conjugate shift theory and can be quantified once the residual aberrations of the lens groups are known at just one zoom configuration. By applying stop and conjugate shift theory to examples from patent literature, we establish some basic principles of third order aberration balancing in zoom lenses design. These principles are then applied to existing designs and are used to guide a computational method for planning the aberration balance of a zoom lens.

Since the development of the first achromatic lenses back in the 18th century, dispersion models have been constant companions of optical designers. Usually glass properties are described by Abbe numbers and partial dispersions, and color correction is explained and visualized e.g. with Pg,F- and Herzberger diagrams. We have recently developed an alternative approach to color analysis and color correction based on principal component analysis (PCA) of normalized refractive index data. Unlike their traditional counterparts, the resulting diagrams can be used not only for glass selection, but also for a quantitative prediction of partial refractive powers and residual color aberrations, which arise naturally from the PCA. The method can easily be transferred to any spectral range and set of glasses, as it is intrinsically model-free and does not involve any choice of reference wavelengths or tuning of parameters. We present application examples of the method and discuss the impact of using different glass catalogs and wavelength samplings.

Mechanical and thermal disturbances in optical systems are attracting increasing attention as accuracy requirements rise. For this reason, it is necessary to consider these disturbances at an early stage in the design process. This can be done by a holistic multiphysical opto-thermo-mechanical simulation. Such an approach is presented with a focus on efficient thermomechanical computation through a quasi-static approximation.

A new approach for glass substitution in the lens system optimization process has been developed. Exploring existing longitudinal aberration contributions, the new method uses sensitivity analysis to find optimal optical glass constants (refractive index, Abbe number, and relative partial dispersion) for certain optical system elements. A case study introducing the glass substitution method to the optical system design is described. It is shown that the new approach provides step-by-step improvements in the optical system’s longitudinal aberration correction.

The high cost of optical raw materials in the long wavelength infrared (LWIR) region necessitates the development of cost-effective solutions without compromising resolution. Chalcogenide glasses offer a faster and easier production process compared to growing single crystals of Germanium (Ge). Additionally, they can be molded into complex optical surfaces, reducing processing costs further for serial production. In this study, we explore the potential of chalcogenide lenses. Our comprehensive design study demonstrates that chalcogenide lens designs can achieve comparable or even superior optical performance with reasonable system complexity when compared to a wide-angle benchmark Ge design.