First order optical system design using rays is useful for the initial design of an optical imaging system, but does not predict the energy and resolution of the system. This module introduces Gaussian beams, an specific example of how the shape of the light evolves in an imaging system.

This module provides the background for the full electro-magnetic field description of optical systems, including a description of plane and spherical waves and a formal treatment of reflection and refraction from this perspective. We start out with a quick review of the mathematical background for this description. This will be fairly short, but you may want to spend some more time reviewing these concepts on your own if you have not seen them for a while.

This module provides an introduction to the basics of Fourier Optics, which are used to determine the resolution of an imaging system. We will discuss a few Fourier Transforms that show up in standard optical systems in the first subsection and use these to determine the system resolution, and then discuss the differences between coherent and incoherent systems and impulse responses and transfer functions in the second subsection. We will wrap up with a discussion of these concepts using OpticStudio.

This module takes the concepts of pupils and resolution that we have discussed in the previous modules and works through how to apply them to our first-order optical design systems. We start with a description of how to find the system pupils and windows, then move on to a discussion of how that affects the imaging properties of this system, and finally return to the Lagrange invariant and its utility in optical system design.