Optical Systems Design

with Zemax
Lecture 1

Why Optical Systems Design

Optical system design is no longer a skill
reserved for a few professionals. With
readily available commercial optical design
software, these tools are accessible to the
general optical engineering community and
rudimentary skills in optical design are now
expected by a wide range of industries who
utilize optics in their products.
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Optical Systems Design

Course Aims
To introduce the design principles of
lens and mirror optical systems and
the evaluation of designs using
modern computer techniques. The
lectures will cover lens design,
aberrations, optimization,
tolerancing and image quality
metrics.
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Optical Systems Design

ZEMAX
The ZEMAX Optical Design Program is a
comprehensive software tool. It integrates
all the features required to conceptualize,
design, optimize, analyze, tolerance, and
document virtually any optical system. It is
widely used in the optics industry as a
standard design tool. This course will
introduce the basics of ZEMAX.
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Optical Systems Design

Other Optical Design

Software
Code-V (Optical Research Associates)
OSLO (Sinclair Optics)
OpTaliX (Optenso Ltd)
ASAP (Breault Research)
TracePro (Lambda Research)
FRED (Photon Engineering)

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Optical Systems Design

Local Experts
Jurgen Schmoll
Stephen Rolt
Colin Dunlop
Tim Morris

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Optical Systems Design

Course Outline
Lecture 1: Introduction
Lecture 2: Sequential Systems
Lecture 3: Optimization
Lecture 4: Tolerancing
Lecture 5: Non-sequential & other stuff
Web page: http://astro.dur.ac.uk/~rsharp/opticaldesign.html
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Optical Systems Design

Objectives: Lecture 1
At the end of this lecture you should:
1.
2.
3.
4.

5.

Be able to install a version of the Zemax optical

design programme on a Windows PC
Understand the main tasks involved in optical
systems design with Zemax
Be aware of Zemax notation for the 5 main
Seidel aberrations
Know the relevance of the terms: optical axis,
stop, pupil, chief ray, marginal ray, point spread
function for Zemax
Use the Zemax lens data editor to enter the
specifications of a simple lens

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Getting started
Download a copy of Zemax from

http://www.radiantzemax.com
CfAI/Atmol members can use the shared
license server on zemax.cfai.local. This
requires a copy of the file sntlconfig.xml from
the server Exchange/installers/Zemax to be
copied into the main Zemax directory (C:
\Program Files\Zemax)
Five licences are available. See who is using
them at http://zemax.cfai.local:7002
Non-CfAI/Atmol members should use the
Zemax demo
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Optical Systems Design

Recommended Texts
Zemax manual
Introduction to Lens Design with Practical Zemax

Examples, Joseph M Geary (Willmann-Bell Inc.)

Optical Systems Design, Robert Fischer & Bijana
Tadic(SPIE Press)
Practical Computer-Aided Design, Gregory
Hallock-Smith (Willmann-Bell Inc.)
Astronomical Optics, Dan Schroeder (Academic
Press; GoogleBooks)
Optics, Jeff Hecht (Addison Wesley)
Also the Zemax knowledge base
http://kb-en.radiantzemax.com/Knowledgebase/
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Optical Systems Design

Science or art of developing optical systems to
image, direct, analyse or measure light.
Includes camera lenses, telescopes, microscopes,
scanners, photometers, spectrographs,
interferometers,
Systems should be as free from geometrical optical
errors (aberrations) as possible.
Correcting and controlling aberrations is one of the
main tasks of the optical designer (includes
performance evaluation and fabrication/tolerancing
issues).
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Historical Note
Lens design has changed significantly since

~1960 with the introduction of digital computers

and numerical optimisation.
Equations describing aberrations of lens/mirror
systems are very non-linear functions of system
parameters (curvatures, spacings, refractive
indices, dispersions, )
Only a few specialised systems can be derived
analytically in exact closed-form solutions.
Analytical design methods (Petzval, Seidel) were
historically based on a mathematical treatment
of geometrical imagery and primary aberrations
still useful for initial designs.
Numerical evaluation methods ray trace many
light rays from object to image space.
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Seidel (3rd order) Aberrations

1. Spherical aberration
2. Coma
3. Astigmatism
4. Field curvature
5. Distortion
6. Longitudinal chromatic aberration
7. Lateral chromatic aberration
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Numerical Evaluation Methods

Assume only trigonometry, law of reflection and

Snells law

n1 sin 1 = n 2 sin 2

For each ray calculate new ray parameters at

each surface
Sequential ray-tracing assumes that light travels
from surface to surface in adefined order.
Non-sequential ray-tracing does not assume a
pre-defined path for the rays, but when a ray hits
a surface in its path, it may then reflect, refract,
diffract, scatter or split into child rays (scattered
light).

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Numerical Optimisation
Methods
Given a starting configuration, the

computer can be used to optimise a

design by an iterative process.
Final image quality is best that can be
achieved under constraints of basic
configuration, required focal length, f/
number, field of view, wavelength etc.
Programs are still dumb. Designer must
supply intelligence through selection of
starting configuration, control of
optimization parameters, understanding
of underlying optical theory, etc.
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Objects, Light Rays &

Wavefronts
Objects composed of self-luminous (radiant) points of

light
Trajectories of photons from each of these points
define the light rays
Neglecting diffraction, these physical rays become
geometrical rays (ray bundles)
Wavefronts are surfaces normal to rays
Light travel times along all rays to the wavefront from
an object point are the same (for a fixed
wavelength)
Neglecting diffraction, physical wavefronts become
geometrical wavefronts (good approximation
except near boundaries or edges)

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Objects, Light Rays &

Wavefronts
Optical axis

Wavefronts

Image
Plane

Object
Plane
Ray bundles

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The Optical Axis

Most optical systems are collections of

rotationally symmetric surfaces whose centres of

curvature are all located along a common axis
(Optical Axis)
Plane surfaces have infinite radius of curvature
Intersection of the optical axis and a surface is at
the surface vertex
Longitudinal cross-section defines a meridional
plane (all equivalent)
Ray in this plane are meridional rays. Rays out of
plane are skew rays.
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Stops & Pupils

Every optical system contains one physical aperture that

limits the extent of the wavefront for the ray bundle which is
transmitted through the system to the on-axis image point
(aperture stop or stop)
If optics are large enough then this will also be true for off-axis
image points
In many cases this is not true leading to mechanical
vignetting of off-axis image points
Size and location of the aperture stop can have important
impact on system performance through its effects on
geometrical aberrations
Image of the stop in object space is the entrance pupil.
Image of the stop in image space is the exit pupil.
Focal ratio (e.g. f/5.6) is ratio of focal length (for object at )
to entrance pupil diameter (EPD)

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Stops & Pupils

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Marginal & Chief Rays

Marginal ray originates at the object point on axis

and goes to the edge of the stop of the system.

Chief ray (principal ray) originates at the object
point at the edge of the field of view and passes
through the centre of the stop of the system.

Axial height (transverse distance away from the

optical axis) of the marginal ray is zero at the object
and all images of the object. At these locations the
axial height of the chief ray determines the size
(semi-diameter) of the object and its images
(magnification). These roles are reversed when
considering the aperture stop and its images (pupils).
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Marginal & Chief Rays

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Point Spread Function (PSF)

Impossible to image a point object as

a perfect point image.

PSF gives the physically correct light
distribution in the image plane
including the effects of aberrations
and diffraction.
Errors are introduced by design
(geometrical aberrations), optical and
mechanical fabrication & alignment.
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Co-ordinate Systems and

Sign Conventions
No standardization between

different codes!
Zemax uses a right-handed
cartesian co-ordinate system, where
the Z-axis is the optical axis and light
initially moves in the direction of +Z.
Co-ordinate breaks (rotations) are
defined in a right-handed sense.
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Optical Prescriptions
An optical design is described by a set of

surfaces through which the light passes

sequentially.
Surfaces are tabulated in the lens data
editor and are numbered sequentially
from the object surface (surface 0) and
ending with the image surface.
A minimum of 3 surfaces is required
(object, stop, image).
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Surface Parameters
Surface number
Radius of curvature
Thickness to the next surface
Glass type in the next medium
Aspheric data (if any)
Aperture size (semi-diameter)
Tilt and decenter data (if any)

One surface is designated the stop surface.

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Using the Lens Data Editor

Gen button: define entrance aperture
Fie button: define field angles (FoV)
Wav button: define wavelengths
Singlet lens prescription:
R1 = 100 mm, t1 = 10 mm, Glass = BK7, Semi-D1 = 25 mm
R2 = -100 mm, t2 = Quick-focus, Air, Semi-D2 = 25 mm
An aperture stop (entrance pupil) is placed at the 1st
lens surface (D = 40 mm).
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ZEMAX Lens Data Editor

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First Order Properties

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Summary: Lecture 1
Optical design has changed radically

since the introduction of modern raytracing software packages

ZEMAX is a comprehensive software tool
which integrates all the features required
to design an optical system
The optical design process involves
developing a conceptual optial design,
ray-tracing an optical layout and varying
parameters of the specification to
improve performance
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Exercises: Lecture 1
Install Zemax (or the Zemax demo)

on your PC
Use the lens data editor to input the
optical prescription of the biconvex
singlet from the lecture
Investigate how the focus depends
on wavelength and lens curvatures
Investigate how the image quality
depends on the thickness of the lens
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