Priyanka Jillella Lens Design, OPTI 507 HW#1, Software: Zemax

The purpose of this assignment is to be able to design a collimating lens, or light coupling lens with a
numerical aperture of 0.5, and a clear aperture of 5mm. Light coupling optics are designed such that they have high coupling efficiency, thus they have high NA. In this design assignment, such a high NA len is designed and its performance is evaluated. Evaluation of the design involved computation and correction of (on-axis) spherical aberration and (off-axis) coma. A lens that is corrected for both spherical aberration and coma is called an aplanat. Hyperboloidal surfaces, aspheric surfaces, refractive index adjusting, and lens bending are the methods used in this assignment to generate such a lens.

a) Set a plano convex lens 4 mm in thickness that meets these requirements. Light from infinity is incident on the flat surface. Set the observation plane at the rear focal point. Evaluate the peak to valley spherical aberration. (note that with a spherical surface there will be total internal reflection for rays at and near the 0.5 NA; therefore reduce the NA (clear aperture) to the point rays are refracted) The design parameters given: Clear aperture (Entrance Pupil Diameter) : 5mm Numerical Aperture: 0.5 Wavelength: 0.85m Glass: BK7 Using the given design parameter (numerical aperture), the exit angle of the marginal ray in the image space is calculated, using the following equation: The value of is calculated to be -0.5235988 rad (30 degrees). The radius of surface 2 is solved for a marginal ray angle which is equal to this value. The lens editor following this looks like this:

Page 1 of 11

Priyanka Jillella Lens Design, OPTI 507 HW#1, Software: Zemax From looking at the lens layout, we see that the rays at the edge of the pupil are totally internally reflected. A more rigorous examination can be done by tracing real rays in zemax.

Layout 9/20/2011 Total Axial Length: 13.77465 mm

Configuration 1 of 1

OPTI 517_HW1_Jillella.ZMX

As can be seen in the dialog box below, at a normalized Y pupil coordinate equal to 0.64495 the ray is TIR-ed.

And, a ray with normalized Y pupil coordinate equal to 0.6449 is not TIR-ed.

Page 2 of 11

Priyanka Jillella Lens Design, OPTI 507 HW#1, Software: Zemax Thus to avoid TIR, the entrance pupil diameter DEP is given by:

The entrance pupil diameter in the lens design is changed to 3.2245mm to avoid TIR. The change is made only after solve on the surface 3 is removed (or else, the change in DEP will affect the surface curvature).

Layout 9/20/2011 Total Axial Length: 13.77465 mm

Configuration 1 of 1

OPTI 517_HW1_Jillella.ZMX

The OPD plots below show that the lens has spherical aberration of about +/- 200 waves.
OBJ: 0.0000 (deg) ey ex W OBJ: 0.0000 (deg) W

Py

Px

Py

Px

Transverse Ray Fan Plot 9/20/2011 Maximum Scale: 5000.000 m. 0.850 Surface: Image

Optical Path Difference 9/20/2011 Maximum Scale: 200.000 Waves. 0.850

Configuration 1 of 1 Surface: Image

OPTI 517_HW1_Jillella.ZMX

Configuration 1 of 1

OPTI 517_HW1_Jillella.ZMX

Page 3 of 11

Priyanka Jillella Lens Design, OPTI 507 HW#1, Software: Zemax b) Set the convex surface to be a hyperboloid with an eccentricity equal to the index of refraction and verify that this perfectly corrects for spherical aberration. For a semi field-angle of 0.5 degree see how much coma is present. The stop is located at the first surface. There are two ways that this correction for spherical aberration can be performed. First, by using the following equation:

And, using this conic constant in the lens data editor the design can be corrected for spherical aberration. Another way to do this is, using Merit function feature in zemax. When the merit function is optimized for SPHA (spherical aberration) operand target value of zero, while setting the conic constant as a variable.

From the lens layout, and the OPD plots we can infer that, as a field angle of 0.5o is added to the design, coma is seen.

Layout 9/20/2011 Total Axial Length: 13.77465 mm

Configuration 1 of 1

OPTI 517_HW1_Jillella_b1.ZMX

Page 4 of 11

Priyanka Jillella Lens Design, OPTI 507 HW#1, Software: Zemax

OBJ: 0.0000 (deg) W W W

OBJ: 0.5000 (deg) W

Py

Px

Py

Px

Optical Path Difference 9/20/2011 Maximum Scale: 10.000 Waves. 0.850 Surface: Image
Configuration 1 of 1

OPTI 517_HW1_Jillella_b1.ZMX

The amount of coma W131 that is present in the system is 10.4194 waves.

Page 5 of 11

Priyanka Jillella Lens Design, OPTI 507 HW#1, Software: Zemax c) Set now the lens so that the convex surface is the front one. Change the radius of curvature to meet the NA requirement. Make this surface a general aspheric and free the conic constant, the 6th, 8th, and 10th order aspheric coefficients. Set the program default error function. Set the image plane at the rear focal plane. The field angle should be zero. Optimize till you correct for spherical aberration, that is, minimize the opd rms or spot rms. Examine the coma for a 0.5 degree field. Here, the surfaces of the lens are reversed. The aspherical surface curvature is solved for marginal ray angle after it gets refracted at first surface of the lens. This angle is calculated by back tracing marginal ray that results in image NA of 0.5. This angle is calculated to be -19.33925o. The radius of curvature obtained meets the NA requirement.

Using zemaxs default merit function, with a constraint on the EFFL, the lens design was optimized to correct for spherical aberration (for zero degree field angle), and coma (for 0.5 degree field angle).

Layout 9/20/2011 Total Axial Length: 10.68148 mm

Configuration 1 of 1

OPTI 517_HW1_Jillella_c1.ZMX

The amount of coma W131 that is present in the system is 2.7476 waves. This design has a better performance over the design in the last session.

Page 6 of 11

Priyanka Jillella Lens Design, OPTI 507 HW#1, Software: Zemax

OBJ: 0.0000 (deg) W W W

OBJ: 0.5000 (deg) W

Py

Px

Py

Px

Optical Path Difference 9/20/2011 Maximum Scale: 5.000 Waves. 0.850 Surface: Image
Configuration 1 of 1

OPTI 517_HW1_Jillella_c1.ZMX

Page 7 of 11

Priyanka Jillella Lens Design, OPTI 507 HW#1, Software: Zemax d) Increase by hand the index of refraction till coma is corrected. Use the optimization to correct only for spherical aberration (set first the field angle to zero). At this point the lens is an aplanat. In zemax, the merit function can be optimized for COMA (coma optimization operand) with a target value set to zero, and the glass solve (model) as the only variable. This is same as manually changing the index of refraction till coma is corrected. Note that the correction for coma is performed for field angle of 0.5o. Once coma is corrected for, the refractive index is fixed, and the field is set to 0o. Then, optimization of conic constant, 6th, 8th and 10th order coefficients is performed to correct only for spherical aberration. Throughout this process of optimization, EFFL constraint is placed on the design.

Layout 9/20/2011 Total Axial Length: 11.08898 mm

Configuration 1 of 1

OPTI 517_HW1_Jillella_d1.ZMX

Page 8 of 11

Priyanka Jillella Lens Design, OPTI 507 HW#1, Software: Zemax

OBJ: 0.0000 (deg) W W W

OBJ: 0.5000 (deg) W

Py

Px

Py

Px

Optical Path Difference 9/20/2011 Maximum Scale: 0.200 Waves. 0.850 Surface: Image
Configuration 1 of 1

OPTI 517_HW1_Jillella_d1.ZMX

The amount of coma W131 that is present in the system is 0.3270 waves. And, spherical aberration W040 present in this design is 0.0051 waves. This design is well corrected from both spherical aberration and coma.

Page 9 of 11

Priyanka Jillella Lens Design, OPTI 507 HW#1, Software: Zemax e) Get back to lens as in c). Bend the lens till coma is corrected.

Layout 9/20/2011 Total Axial Length: 12.39328 mm

Configuration 1 of 1

OPTI 517_HW1_Jillella_e1.ZMX

OBJ: 0.0000 (deg) W W W

OBJ: 0.5000 (deg) W

Py

Px

Py

Px

Optical Path Difference 9/20/2011 Maximum Scale: 0.500 Waves. 0.850 Surface: Image
Configuration 1 of 1

OPTI 517_HW1_Jillella_e1.ZMX

Page 10 of 11

Priyanka Jillella Lens Design, OPTI 507 HW#1, Software: Zemax Through this exercise, it can be learnt that an Aplanat lens is designed to minimize two monochromatic wavefront errors called Spherical aberration and Coma. This makes aplanatic lenses applicable for alignment purposes. The optimization of an aplanatic lens is achieved by techniques like, aspheric surfaces, tuning of the refractive index; neither of which are trivial. Design is section D might be realizable by using a high refractive index glass from the catalog and optimizing the aspheric coefficients.

Page 11 of 11