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Why Airy disk is elliptical?

  • 25 September 2021
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Hi,

I try to simulate an endoscope system, and I found the airy disk was elliptical in the spot diagram. I noticed that it might be due to different F/# number in Tan and Sag planes. Is it ok if I leave it elliptical? Or what can I do to make the shape round? In my application, I mainly focus on the transverse resolution of the system. Thank you.

Oliver

 

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Best answer by Ethan 27 December 2022, 20:30

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Hi @Oliver,

Apologies on the delayed response to your question. In case this design is still relevant to you or to others, I just wanted to add a few comments. Yes, you are correct that the spot is elliptical due to variations in the focus along the X- and Y-axis. By looking at the Surface Sag, it is clear that a number of elements in your design have differing curvature and are not radially symmetric:

 

To achieve a circular spot, you would need to redesign this system such that you compensate for the differing power in the sagittal and tangential planes, either by adding additional focusing elements or by modifying existing surfaces.

Regarding whether an elliptical spot is desirable, this is dependent on your application and goals. For example, here is a paper on the use of elliptical beam shapes as a method to mitigate aberrations: Aberration Mitigation in High-Resolution Optical Coherence Tomography Implementing Elliptical Beam Design | IEEE Journals & Magazine | IEEE Xplore.

I hope this helps.

Best,
Ethan

  

Hi @Oliver,

Apologies on the delayed response to your question. In case this design is still relevant to you or to others, I just wanted to add a few comments. Yes, you are correct that the spot is elliptical due to variations in the focus along the X- and Y-axis. By looking at the Surface Sag, it is clear that a number of elements in your design have differing curvature and are not radially symmetric:

 

To achieve a circular spot, you would need to redesign this system such that you compensate for the differing power in the sagittal and tangential planes, either by adding additional focusing elements or by modifying existing surfaces.

Regarding whether an elliptical spot is desirable, this is dependent on your application and goals. For example, here is a paper on the use of elliptical beam shapes as a method to mitigate aberrations: Aberration Mitigation in High-Resolution Optical Coherence Tomography Implementing Elliptical Beam Design | IEEE Journals & Magazine | IEEE Xplore.

I hope this helps.

Best,
Ethan

Hi Ethan,

Thank you for replying. It helps me a lot. 

 

Best regards,

Oliver

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