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Driven by the development of freeform imaging systems, we have combined several concepts and techniques from the literature to analytically generate unobscured freeform starting point designs that are corrected through the third-order image degrading aberrations. The surfaces used in these starting point designs are described as a base off-axis conic that images stigmatically for the central field point, also known as a Cartesian reflector, with an aspheric departure “cap” (quartic with the aperture) added to the base off-axis conic to correct for the third-order image degrading aberrations. Once the aspheric caps are added to the surfaces, the system is then optimized using higher order freeform terms while leaving second-order terms frozen to preserve the focal length of the system during optimization. This technique is used to survey the three-mirror freeform imager solution space. Several systems that are the result of this technique are shown, with different numbers of internal images, internal pupil conjugates and folding geometries.
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On-the-fly surface manufacturability constraints for freeform optical design enabled by orthogonal polynomials
When leveraging orthogonal polynomials for describing freeform optics, designers typically focus on the computational efficiency of convergence and the optical performance of the resulting designs. However, to physically realize these designs, the freeform surfaces need to be fabricated and tested. An optimization constraint is described that allows on-the-fly calculation and constraint of manufacturability estimates for freeform surfaces, namely peakto- valley sag departure and maximum gradient normal departure. This constraint’s construction is demonstrated in general for orthogonal polynomials, and in particular for both Zernike polynomials and Forbes 2D-Q polynomials. Lastly, this optimization constraint’s impact during design is shown via two design studies: a redesign of a published unobscured three-mirror telescope in the ball geometry for use in LWIR imaging and a freeform prism combiner for use in AR/VR applications. It is shown that using the optimization penalty with a fixed number of coefficients enables an improvement in manufacturability in exchange for a tradeoff in optical performance. It is further shown that, when the number of coefficients is increased in conjunction with the optimization penalty, manufacturability estimates can be improved without sacrificing optical performance. © 2019 Optical Society of America under the terms of the OSA Open Access Publishing Agreement
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- PAR ID:
- 10161237
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Optics express
- Volume:
- 27
- Issue:
- 5
- ISSN:
- 1094-4087
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 6129-6146
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1364/OE.27.006129
