The first edition of Optical Engineering Fundamentals (OEF) reflected my experience and exposure to the history of optical engineering as I witnessed it during 25 years of work within the optics industry. All of these work assignments involved the usual team structures, where the range of duties and responsibilities of the optical engineer were quite limited.
In the years 1992 through 2008, I continued to work actively as an
independent consultant in the fields of optical engineering, lens design, and
optomechanical systems design. This second edition of OEF reflects much of
what I have learned during this more recent personal work experience, with
emphasis on the application of state-of-the-art computer software to generate solutions to related lens design and optimization problems. While all lens design examples presented involve the use of the OSLO software package (Lambda Research, Littleton, MA), it must be made clear that competitive software packages, such as ZEMAX, Code V, and others can be applied to generate similar results.
All of this consulting work has required a more complete and thorough
understanding of the optical engineering, design, and manufacturing process. Many of the changes and additions contained in this second edition reflect that increased scope of work.
Another area that has witnessed significant changes in recent years includes
computer systems and software for optical design and analysis. This second
edition of OEF contains a chapter dealing with the OSLO-EDU software
package. It is hoped that all interested readers, regardless of their professional responsibilities, will find that being familiar with tools like OSLO-EDU will permit them to do a better job.
The early chapters of OEF deal with basic concepts that remain unchanged.
This edition will expand on those concepts and improve on the effectiveness of the presentations.
Subsequent portions of this edition deal with specific optical components,
instruments, and systems. These topics are updated to reflect recent
developments in those areas, in particular, the development of electronic sensors and how they impact the work of the optical engineer.
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