2025/02/03 by Yuxuan Liu, Jannick P. Rolland · 1 voice · 2 citations
Engineering · Materials Science · #Advanced optical system design #Optical Coatings and Gratings #Optical Polarization and Ellipsometry
paper · doi:10.1364/josaa.547743
openalex publication_date 2025/02/03 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
Based on a generalization of paraxial optics and wavefront aberration expansion, we derive the aberration coefficients of main aberration types (i.e., third-group aberrations) in plane-symmetric systems. The derivation removes approximations used in prior work and includes contributions from freeform surfaces and induced aberrations to reach formulas of aberration coefficients that are widely applicable to plane-symmetric systems. The analytical formulas of aberration coefficients provide a good prediction of aberrations in an optical system based on the arrangement and shapes of optical surfaces without real raytracing. When applied to the analysis of distortion in freeform spectrometers, the theory predicts distortion behavior consistent with results simulated from real raytracing. The formulas of aberration coefficients also provide useful insights on aberration balancing between surfaces and between intrinsic and induced aberrations.