Abstract
.Significance: An advanced understanding of optical design is necessary to create optimal systems but this is rarely taught as part of general curriculum. Compounded by the fact that professional optical design software tools have a prohibitive learning curve, this means that neither knowledge nor tools are easily accessible.Aim: In this tutorial, we introduce a raytracing module for Python, originally developed for teaching optics with ray matrices, to simplify the design and optimization of optical systems.Approach: This module is developed for ray matrix calculations in Python. Many important concepts of optical design that are often poorly understood such as apertures, aperture stops, and field stops are illustrated.Results: The module is explained with examples in real systems with collection efficiency, vignetting, and intensity profiles. Also, the optical invariant, an important benchmark property for optical systems, is used to characterize an optical system.Conclusions: This raytracing Python module will help improve the reader’s understanding of optics and also help them design optimal systems.
Highlights
Engineers and scientists operating in fields such as neurophotonics, remote sensing, medicine, or even industrial manufacturing are often tasked with building or modifying imaging systems for customized applications
Pineau Noël et al.: Tools and tutorial on practical ray tracing for microscopy. We describe both optical design concepts and a raytracing module based on the ray matrix formalism (i.e., ABCD matrices) to characterize important aspects of real optical systems typically encountered by non-experts, such as the effect of finite-sized lenses and apertures
This tutorial presents the main features of the ray matrix formalism, in combination with a useful Python module to help visualize optical systems and to understand how they behave within the paraxial approximation
Summary
Engineers and scientists operating in fields such as neurophotonics, remote sensing, medicine, or even industrial manufacturing are often tasked with building or modifying imaging systems for customized applications. They must often resort to expert advice from optical designers to obtain clear and quantitative answers to their specific optics problems. There should be a solution, between simplified analytical solutions and expert tools that can help non-experts tackle moderately complicated problems by themselves to obtain quantitative answers It is the purpose of the present tutorial to provide both the knowledge and the tools for this audience
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
