Frequency response characteristics of a birefringent lens with off-axis aberrations

TLDR: It has been shown that the proposed system has imaging characteristics distinctly different from those of an ordinary glass lens, and these may be advantageous for better balancing of aberrations in conventional imaging systems.

Abstract: We report the frequency response characteristics of an optical system consisting of a lens made of a uniaxial birefringent crystal sandwiched between two linear polarizers; the lens has prespecified off-axis aberrations such as primary astigmatism and primary coma. An analytical expression is obtained for the optical transfer function of the proposed system by use of the autocorrelation of the pupil function over the lens aperture. Some specific cases are computed and illustrated graphically. It has been shown that the proposed system has imaging characteristics distinctly different from those of an ordinary glass lens, and these may be advantageous for better balancing of aberrations in conventional imaging systems.