Introduction to Lens Design

Optical lenses have many important applications, from telescopes and spectacles, to microscopes and lasers. This concise, introductory book provides an overview of the subtle art of lens design. It covers the fundamental, optical theory, and the practical methods and tools employed in lens design, in a succinct and accessible manner. Topics covered include first-order optics, optical aberrations, achromatic doublets, optical relays, lens tolerances, designing with off-the-shelf lenses, miniature lenses, and zoom lenses. Covering all the key concepts of lens design, and providing suggestions for further reading at the end of each chapter, this book is an essential resource for graduate students working in optics and photonics, in addition to engineers and technicians working in the optics and imaging industries.

Preface; 1. Introduction; 2. Classical imaging, first-order imaging, and imaging aberrations; 3. Aspheric surfaces; 4. Thin lenses; 5. Ray tracing; 6. Radiometry in a lens system; 7. Achromatic and athermal lenses; 8. Combinations of achromatic doublets; 9. Image evaluation; 10. Lens tolerancing; 11. Using lens design software; 12. Petzval portrait objective, Cooke triplet and double Gauss lens; 13. Lens system combinations; 14. Ghost image analysis; 15. Designing with off-the-shelf lenses; 16. Mirror systems; 17. Miniature lenses; 18. Zoom lenses; Appendix 1: tables of imaging aberrations; Appendix 2: tables of pupil aberrations; Appendix 3: tables of structural aberration coefficients; Appendix 4: table of aberrations of a plane symmetric system; Appendix 5: the sine condition; Glossary; Further reading; Index.

José Sasián is Professor of Optical Design at the College of Optical Sciences at the University of Arizona. He has taught a course on lens design for more than twenty years and has published extensively in the field. He has worked as a consultant in lens design for the optics industry, and has been responsible for the design of a variety of successful and novel lens systems.