Aberration

Aberration is something that deviates from the normal way. The deviation in the size, shape and
position of an image produced by a lens is known as aberration. Hence, Optical aberration is an
imperfection in image formation by an optical system.

Classification of Aberration:

There are mainly two aberrations: (1) Monochromatic aberration (2) Chromatic aberration

There are five types of Monochromatic aberrations: (1) Spherical Aberration (2) Coma

(3) Astigmatism (4) Field Curvature and (5) Distortion

Chromatic aberration: Chromatic aberration is the aberration which produced by the variation of
refractive index with wavelength of light. When white light consisting of a continuous range of
wavelength is incident on a lens then each wavelength refracts by different amounts. This leads
chromatic aberration. In photography, chromatic aberration produces soft overall images, and color fringing at
high-contrast edges, like an edge between black and white.

In figure R and V represents red and violet light respectively.

How can we minimize Chromatic Aberration?

It can be minimized by using an achromatic doublet (or achromat) in which two materials with
differing dispersion are bonded together to form a single lens. An apochromat is a lens or lens system
which has even better correction of chromatic aberration, combined with improved correction of
spherical aberration. Different lens materials may also be used to minimize chromatic aberration, such
as specialized coatings or lenses made from the crystal fluorite. This naturally occurring substance has
low dispersion.

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Aspherizing:

It is a tedious hand polishing process by which various zones of one or both lens surfaces are given
different curvatures.

Monochromatic Aberration: The types of defects which form even if monochromatic light is used
are called Monochromatic Aberration. These types of defects arises for the fact that when light incident
on the various parts of a lens they form images on different points.

With Classification define Spherical aberration

If a wide beam of rays incident on a lens parallel to the lens axis is not come to focus at a unique point,
the resulting image defects is known as spherical aberration. The Spherical aberration produces by a
lens depends on the distance of the object point and varies approximately as the square of the distance
of the object ray above the axis of the lens.

Fig: The presence of spherical aberration in the image formed by a single lens

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Here a point object is considered on the axis of the lens. Im and Ip are the images formed by the
marginal and paraxial rays respectively. The image extends over the length Im Ip. This effect is called
spherical aberration.

It is clear from the fig. that the paraxial rays of light form the image at a longer distance from the lens
than the marginal rays. At positions on the two sides of AB, the image patch has a larger diameter.
This patch of diameter AB is called the circle of least confusion, which corresponds, to the position of
the best image.

Longitudinal spherical Aberration:

The distance Im Ip measures the longitudinal spherical aberration. Hence, the distance between the
axial intersections of a ray and the paraxial focus is known as the longitudinal spherical aberration. So
from the fig. Im Ip is the longitudinal spherical aberration.

Lateral spherical aberration:

The height above the axis where a given ray strikes the screen placed at the paraxial focus is called the
transverse or lateral spherical aberration.

Positive and Negative Spherical Aberration:

For converging lens the marginal rays are being focused in front of the paraxial rays which is called
+ve SA.

For diverging lens the marginal rays are generally intersected on the axis behind the paraxial focus and
is called –ve SA.

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How can SA be reduced or removed?

The process which can be followed to reduce SA are:

i) SA can be minimized by using stops which reduce the effective lens aperture. The stop used
can be such as to permit either the axial rays of light or the marginal rays of light.
ii) SA can be reduced to a minimum by choosing the proper radii for the two surface of a lens.

(iii) It can be completely eliminated for a single lens by aspherizing. It is a tedious hand polishing
process by which various zones of one or both lens surfaces are given different curvatures.

(iv) SA for a convex lens is positive and for a concave lens is –ve. By a suitable combination of
convex and concave lenses SA can be made minimum.

Write a short note on Coma

Coma, or comatic aberration, is an image-degrading aberration associated with object points that are
even slightly off axis. When an off-axis bundle of light is incident on a lens, the light will undergo
different amounts of refraction depending on where it strikes the lens (see Fig. 2a); as a result, each
annulus of light will focus onto the image plane at a slightly different height and with a different spot
size (see Fig. 2b), thereby leading to different transverse magnifications. The resulting image of a point
source, which is shown in Fig. 2c, is a complicated asymmetrical diffraction pattern with a bright
central core and a triangular flare. The elongated comet-like structure from which this type of
aberration takes its name can extend either towards or away from the optical axis depending on
whether the comatic aberration is negative or positive, respectively. Due to the asymmetry that coma
causes in images, many consider it to be the worst type of aberration.

Figure 2. The effects of positive coma are shown. (a) When a light source is off-axis, the various
portions of the lens do not refract the light to the same point on the image plane. (b) The central region
of the lens forms a point image at the vertex of the cone, while larger rings on the periphery of the lens
correspond to larger comatic circles that are displaced farther from the principal axis. (c) Coma leads to
a complicated asymmetrical comet-like diffraction pattern characterized by an elongated structure of
blotches and arcs. Note that the diffraction pattern shown assumes no spherical aberration.

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Coma produced by convex lens is positive, in this case the magnification of the image due to the outer zones is
greater than the inner zones.

Coma produced by concave lens is negative, in this case the magnification of the image due to the outer zones is
smaller than the inner zones.

Astigmatism: Astigmatism is the aberration in the image formed by a lens when an object point lies an
approximate distance from the optical axis. In this case the incident cone of rays will strike the lens
asymmetrically, giving rise to a third primary aberration known as astigmatism.

Like coma, astigmatism affects the image formed by a lens of points, not on the lens axis. However coma results
in spreading out the image of a point over a plane perpendicular to the axis of the lens, while astigmatism
spreads the image in a direction along the axis.

Note that for a point object lying on the axis the image will suffer only from spherical aberration. For
off axis points, the image will suffer from coma, astigmatism, curvature of field and distortion. The
first off-axis aberration is coma; i.e. for points lying very close to the axis, the image will suffer from
spherical aberration and coma only.

What is curvature of field?

The image of an extended plane due to a single lens is not a flat one but will be a curved surface. The central
portion of the image nearer the axis is in focus but the outer regions of the image away from the axis are blurred.
This defect is called the curvature of the field. The following figure shows that a real image formed by a convex
lens curved towards the lens.

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Distortion: Distortion is an aberration arising not from a lack of sharpness of the image but from a variation of
magnification with axial distance. The variation in the magnification produced by a lens for different axial
distances results an aberration called distortion.

Distortions are two types: (1) Pin- Cushion distortion and (2) Barrel shaped distortion

In barrel shaped distortion the magnification decreases with increasing axial distance and the image of an object.
If a stop is placed before the lens the distortion is barrel shaped.

In pin- cushion distortion the magnification increases with increasing axial distance and the image of an object.
If a stop is placed after the lens the distortion is barrel shaped.

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Paraxial Optics (First order optics) Third Order Optics

The paraxial approximation is somewhat unsatisfactory if rays from the periphery of a lens are considered.
3
sin    
3!

We can improve image quality by correcting the aberrations.

Monochromatic aberrations (Seidel aberrations)

Expansion of the sine – First Order Aberrations

To determine the precise performance of a lens system, we can trace the path of light rays through it,
using Snell's law at each optical interface to determine the subsequent ray direction. This process,
called ray tracing, is usually done on a computer. “The emerging wavefront segment corresponding to
the paraxial rays will essentially form a ”perfect” image at its center P. The paraxial approximation is
somewhat unsatisfactory if rays from the periphery of a lens are considered.

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When this process is completed, it is typically found that not all the rays pass through the points or
positions predicted by paraxial theory. These deviations from ideal imaging are called lens aberrations.
The first step in developing these rough guidelines is to realize that the sine functions in Snell's law can
be expanded in an infinite Taylor series:

The first approximation we can make is to replace all sine functions with their arguments (i.e., replace
sinθ1 with θ1 itself and so on). This is called first-order. The assumption that sinθ = θ is reasonably
valid for θ close to zero (i.e., high f-number lenses).

If one considers, then it is called 3rd order approximation.

If one considers, then it is called 5th order approximation, where order

Seidel Sums:
The aberration of any ray, i.e., its deviation from the path prescribed by the Gaussian formulas, is
expressed in terms of five sums, S1 to S5, called the Seidel sums. If a lens were to be free of all defects
in its ability to form images, all five of these sums would have to equal zero. No optical system can be
made to satisfy all these conditions at once. Therefore it is customary to treat each sum separately, and
the vanishing of certain ones corresponds to the absence of certain aberrations. Thus, if for a given
axial object point the Seidel sum S1 = 0, there is no spherical aberration at the corresponding image
point. If both S1 = 0 and S2 = 0, the system will also be free of coma. If, in addition to S1 = 0 and S2 = 0,
the sums S3 = 0 and S4 = 0 as well, the images will be free of astigmatism and curvature of field. If
finally S5 could be made to vanish, there would be no distortion of the image. These aberrations are
also known as the five monochromatic aberrations because they exist for any specified color and
refractive index.