Figure error of optical elements induced aberrations of optical system

Abstract

The optical element’s figure error can be express as Fringe Zernike polynomial and vector form, based on the vector wavefront aberration theory, the figure error of optical element induced aberration’s characteristic of optical system has been analyses in this paper. The figure error on stop aperture affects all the field angles equally and induced the same type aberration as figure error. If the surface of optical element is not the pupil of optical system, the aberration observed in the focal plane is different from the figure error itself, it will not only induced the same type aberration as figure error but also induced lower order aberration in the optical system, the relationship between aberration and field of view is different and the location zero for the lower order aberration always reside at the center of the field of view.