Performance of a polarization-masked lens aperture in the presence of spherical aberration

Abstract

This paper suggests the possibility of partial compensation of spherical aberration with a polarization-masked lens aperture. The principle is based on the fact that any pre-specified phase step can be introduced between two zones of a lens aperture masked by suitably oriented linear polarizers and employing an elliptically polarized imaging beam. By comparison of the point-spread function of such a polarization-masked imaging system with that of an ideal lens, it has been shown that the effect of spherical aberration can be appreciably compensated by making an appropriate choice of the polarization parameters involved.