Computer-aided optical design

[[abstract]]Before the electronic accounting machine and the computer were invented, lens designer calculated the lens' third-order aberration and the multistage likely differential value without any technical instrument. It was really a laborious work. However, in the 21st century, it will be helpful to rely on computer to deal with the lens design formula. To simplify the computation procedure, the aberration formula will be programized with the aids of Matlab, Excel , and Zemax will be used to simulate the performance of the optical system. This research includes two important parts. Firstly,through the discussion of single lens, it shows the influence of shape factor on the aberration and the chromatic aberration. It is aimed to find the shape factor which will affect the Seidel aberration and the chromatic aberration. The second part, based on the above result ,we will discuss the eight degrees-of-freedom in three shape factors,the K value of three lenses and the two spaces of lens in Cooke triplet. Then, the Siedel aberration (spherical aberration, bright difference, astigmatic aberration, field tune, distortion), and the chromatic aberration (longitudinal chromatic aberration, lateral chromatic aberration) will be corrected to meet the specifications of the designed system. Therefore, the optimal three piece of lenses group can be obtained. In this paper, it shows the first order lenses structure can be got by fundamental image forming equations in chapter 4 which is often called the start point of lens design. In these days, it is easily to get this point from patents, lens demo, but it lacks the chance to know how it comes from. Beside, we also show the power of the computer lens design pakage that it gives the advanced design by optimization process. I hope this paper will give the idea how the computer helps to design a lens system