A Wigner-based ray-tracing method for imaging simulations

B. M. Mout; M. Wick; F. Bociort; H. P. Urbach

doi:10.1117/12.2196814

23 September 2015 A Wigner-based ray-tracing method for imaging simulations

B. M. Mout, M. Wick, F. Bociort, H. P. Urbach

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 9630, Optical Systems Design 2015: Computational Optics; 96300Z (2015) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2196814
Event: SPIE Optical Systems Design, 2015, Jena, Germany

Abstract

The Wigner Distribution Function (WDF) forms an alternative representation of the optical field. It can be a valuable tool for understanding and classifying optical systems. Furthermore, it possesses properties that make it suitable for optical simulations: both the intensity and the angular spectrum can be easily obtained from the WDF and the WDF remains constant along the paths of paraxial geometrical rays. In this study we use these properties by implementing a numerical Wigner-Based Ray-Tracing method (WBRT) to simulate diffraction effects at apertures in free-space and in imaging systems. Both paraxial and non-paraxial systems are considered and the results are compared with numerical implementations of the Rayleigh-Sommerfeld and Fresnel diffraction integrals to investigate the limits of the applicability of this approach. The results of the different methods are in good agreement when simulating free-space diffraction or calculating point spread functions (PSFs) for aberration-free imaging systems, even at numerical apertures exceeding the paraxial regime. For imaging systems with aberrations, the PSFs of WBRT diverge from the results using diffraction integrals. For larger aberrations WBRT predicts negative intensities, suggesting that this model is unable to deal with aberrations.

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B. M. Mout, M. Wick, F. Bociort, and H. P. Urbach "A Wigner-based ray-tracing method for imaging simulations", Proc. SPIE 9630, Optical Systems Design 2015: Computational Optics, 96300Z (23 September 2015); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2196814

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