Qualitative and Quantitative Studies of the Effects of Spherical Aberration on the Optical System in the Cases of Coherent and Incoherent Illumination

Abstract

In this paper, we study the effects of coherent and incoherent illumination on the optical imaging system. The effects were studied qualitatively in terms of Point Spread Function (PSF) and Modulation Transfer Function (MTF), and quantitatively in terms of Root Mean Square Error (RMSE). Different values of radius of aperture were investigated in the presence and absence of spherical aberration with various magnitudes of spherical aberration (M=1, 2, and 3). The experiments were performed using homogeneous media.

     The results show that imaging with incoherent illumination is better than imaging with coherent illumination, especially for small aperture. Also, we found that the effects of spherical aberration were increased under incoherent illumination and large aperture.