Improved correction methods for symmetry-free systems

As the modern optical setups nowadays often require a more compact and well-performed imaging system, non-spherical surfaces are more and more applied in optical design tasks. The increasing demand for such systems brings the request for more advanced optical design methods. For successful optical design, the aberration assessment, as well as the sensitivity analysis, is of great importance. Particularly for symmetry-free optical systems, a comprehensive imaging performance evaluation method is desired during the aberration correction process. Therefore, one major topic of the work focuses on the quantitative analysis method for surface-decomposed transverse aberration in symmetry-free systems is proposed. Based on a mixed paraxial/real ray-tracing calculation, the method can be applied for the calculation of full-order total, intrinsic, and induced aberration. In addition, the method supports surface-additive Zernike coefficient representation for the assessment of specific aberrations. The implementations of this novel method help to assess the correction performance considering the relatively critical surfaces in an arbitrary system. Besides, the second topic of this work aims to enhance the global searching ability of the optimization of optical design process. A bio-inspired algorithm based on the ant colony optimization is used and extended for this purpose. Guided by physical knowledge, the algorithm is proved feasible to solve simple optimization problems with proper structural changes. The algorithm outputs a large solution database so that the user can gain an overview of the optional solutions with various structures and out select the best fitting ones according to the specific purpose. The obtained results indicate that the combination of optimization algorithm and physical considerations is of great potential in optical system design with a high level of automation for the future outlook.