Practical technique for balancing the optical aberrations among conceptual thin-lens components of optical zoom lenses.

Solving conceptual thin-lens components with balanced optical aberrations among different optical configurations is essential for lens design from scratch. This paper presents a general and practical method for building conceptual thin-lens components that can be further optimized by Code V (a well-known optical design program) to approach specific aberration targets. The conceptual component consists of a Code V's lens module and a hologram with zero diffraction order. The latter provides spaces for storing the reference data of incident marginal and chief rays, spherical aberration, central coma, and longitudinal chromatic aberration without affecting the paraxial ray tracing. Those reference data are used to evaluate the real aberrations at different optical configurations by our earlier aberration variation algorithms [Appl. Opt.55, 10363 (2016)APOPAI0003-693510.1364/AO.55.010363]. The model helps investigate the properties of lenses and solve the balanced aberrations by the optimization process. An example of solving a zoom lens with different optimization goals is given to demonstrate the usage of the method. Detailed design data are listed for verification.