Spherical Aberration

For lenses made with spherical surfaces, rays which are parallel to the optic axis but at different distances from the optic axis fail to converge to the same point. For a single lens, spherical aberration can be minimized by bending the lens into its best form. For multiple lenses, spherical aberrations can be canceled by overcorrecting some elements. The use of symmetric doublets like the orthoscopic doublet greatly reduces spherical aberration.

When the concept of principal focal length is used, the presumption is that all parallel rays focus at the same distance, which is of course true only if there are no aberrations. The use of the lens equation likewise presumes an ideal lens, and that equation is practically true only for the rays close to the optic axis, the so-called paraxial rays. For a lens with spherical aberration, the best approximation to use for the focal length is the distance at which the difference between the paraxial and marginal rays is the smallest. It is not perfect, but the departure from perfect focus forms what is called the "circle of least confusion". Spherical aberration is one of the reasons why a smaller aperture (larger f-number) on a camera lens will give a sharper image and greater depth of field since the difference between the paraxial and marginal rays is less.

Interference in Wedge Shaped Film (Reflected Rays)

Thin Film Interference A film of thickness from 0.5 to 10 m is a transparent medium of glass, mica, air enclosed between glass, soap film, etc. When the light is made incident on this thin film partial reflection and partial refraction occur from the top surface of the film. The refracted beam travels in the medium and again suffers partial reflection and partial refraction at the bottom surface of the film. In this way several reflected and refracted rays are produces by a single incident ray. As they moves are superimposed on each other and produces interference pattern. Interference in Parallel Film ( Reflected Rays) Consider a thin film of uniform thickness ‘t’ and refractive index bounded between air. Let us consider monochromatic ray AB is made incident on the film, at B part of ray is reflected (R 1 ) and a part is refracted along BC.At C The beam BC again suffer partial reflection and partial refraction, the reflected beam CD mov...

Lloyd's’ mirror experiment

Lloyd's mirror This is another method for finding the wavelength of light by the division of wavefront. Light from a slit So falls on a silvered surface at a very small grazing angle of incidence as shown in the diagram (Figure 1). A virtual image of So is formed at S1. Interference occurs between the direct beam from So to the observer (0) and the reflected beam The zeroth fringe will be black because of the phase change due to reflection at the surface. Application An interesting application of this effect may be observed when a helicopter flies above the sea near a radio transmitter. The helicopter will receive two signals: (a) one signal directly from the transmitter and (b) a second signal after reflection from the sea As the helicopter rises the phase difference between the two signals will alter and the helicopter will pass through regions of maxima and minima. Lloyd's mirror Experiment Lloyd’s Mirror is used to produce two-source interference...

Thin-Lens Equation:Newtonian Form

In the Newtonian form of the lens equation, the distances from the focal length points to the object and image are used rather than the distances from the lens. Newton used the "extrafocal distances" xo and xi in his formulation of the thin lens equation. It is an equivalent treatment, but the Gaussian form will be used in this resource.

Optics for Optometry

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