22: Ocular Aberrations

Question 1

describe an ideal optical system

Answer 1

• a point object is a source of spherical wavefronts
• wavefronts converge to ideal image position and are spherical
• the rays converge to an exact point focus at the ideal image position

Question 2

what is one thing the accommodation system relies on

Answer 2

the presence of longitudinal chromatic aberration

Question 3

what are the 3 main representations of aberrations

Answer 3

1. wavefront
2. longitudinal
3. transverse (or lateral)

Question 4

what is the wavefront aberration

Answer 4

is the departure of the actual wavefront from the ideal wavefront (or reference sphere) at a particular point in the exit pupil

Question 5

list the mathematical representations of aberrations

Answer 5

• Seidel aberrations
• rectangular Taylor polynomial series
• Zernike polynomial series

Question 6

what is one pro of the rectangular taylor polynomial series

Answer 6

the addition of higher order terms allows modeling of more complicated wavefront surfaces

Question 7

what is the most popular wavefront representation?

Answer 7

Zernike polynomial series