OVERVIEW OF STOPS AND PUPILS

1. Aperture Stop
The aperture stop is a limiting diameter [2] of an optical system that determines the
amount of light reaching the image [1], typified by the adjustable diaphragm near the
front of a compound camera lens [2]. It is often the boundary of a lens or mirror. Beside
controlling the amount of light entering the system, it is also the determining factors in
the sizes of the system aberrations. Making the aperture smaller reduces the light, but
increases the depth of focus [1].

Figure 1. Laboratory stop on a lens for diffraction studies [1]

In Figure 1, the aperture stopwas used to produce the single slit diffraction patterns
shown to demonstrate the diffraction phenomenon. [2]
It is common practices to denote the size of the opening in this aperture stop in
terms of the "f-stop" or "f-number". The f-stop is defined by
f focal length
=
D diameter of apertuure
Increasing the f-number of a camera lens decreases the amount of light entering a
camera by decreasing the aperture size [2].
Figure 2. Apperture stop position. For system (a) in the figure on the right the aperture
is the aperture stop, for system (b) the first lens is the aperture stop and for system (c)
the second lens is the aperture stop [5].
2. Field Stop
The field stop is the optical element that blocks off-axis rays passing through the
center of the aperture stop (i.e. the chief rays). The field stop determines how much of
the object can be viewed, in other words: the field of view of the imaging system [3].
The boundary of the field stop is the edge of the detector [1]. It limits the size or angular
breadth of an object that can be imaged by the system is called the field stop. For
cameras, the size of the film or CCD detector determines the maximum image size and
serves as the field stop [2].
 Figure 3. Illustration of vignetting effect
In Figure 3, a cone of light rays from an off-axis object is not transmitted in its entirety,
but rather partially cut off by the field stop of the system, L2's rim. This shows that a
finite-size lens can also act as a field stop [3].
3. Entrance Pupil
Formally, a pupil is an image of the aperture stop. The entrance pupil is defined as
the image of the aperture stop as seen from an axial point on the object through those
elements of the lens which precede the stop [2].
The diameter of the entrance pupil (D) is
f
D=
N
where f is the focal length and N is f-number. It is customary to write f-numbers
preceded by f /¿ (f /2, f /4 ,… ), which forms a mathematical expression of the entrance
pupil diameter in terms of f and N [4].

Figure 4. Entrance pupil

 In the illustration above, the physical aperture is behind the lens. More light will get
through the physical aperture behind the lens than would have if the lens were not
present. The extreme ray is one that is refracted by the lens so that it just passes through
the aperture. Tracing the projected path of that extreme ray without the lens, the
entrance pupil is exactly the size aperture that would be required to pass that extreme
ray in the absence of the lens. [2]
4. Exit Pupil
The exit pupil is the image of the aperture stop as seen from an axial point in the image
plane [2]. The system following the apperture stop is form that image is exit pupil. In
exit pupil, rays from the boundary of the aperture stop approach the final image point as
if coming from the boundary of the exit pupil, for all incidence angles at the aperture
stop boundary [1].

Figure 5. Exit pupil

When the physical aperture stop is in front of the lens, the exit pupil is the image of
that aperture stop as seen from the optic axis in the image plane, looking back through
the lens. In this case, the entrance pupil is just the physical aperture since there is no
lens intervening from the standpoint of the object [2].
Summary: [5]
The steps to find aperture stop, entrance pupil, and exit pupil are:
 Image all optical elements in the system into object space.
 Find the angle subtended by each element image at the on-axis position of the
object.
 The element image with the smallest angle is the entrance pupil.
 The physical object corresponding to this image is the aperture stop.
 The image of the aperture stop in image space is the exit pupil.
 References

[1] Schroeder, D.J, “Astronomical Optics,” 1999, Academic Press.

[2] C. Nave, “Stops, Pupils, and Apertures,” 2016. [Online]. Available:
http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/geoopt/stop.html. [Accessed 15 October
2021].
[3] J. Bagnall, “Aperture and field stops,” Course Wiki, 2015. [Online]. Available:
http://measurebiology.org/wiki/Aperture_and_field_stops. [Accessed 15 October
2021].
[4] Smith, W. Modern Optical Engineering, 4th Ed., 2007 McGraw-Hill Professional, p.
183.
[5] M. Breinig, “Stops and Apertures,” The University of Tennessee, [Online].
Available: http://electron9.phys.utk.edu/optics421/modules/m3/Stops.htm. [Diakses 15
October 2021].