Nonclassical Imaging Systems | Basic Physics for IIT JAM PDF Download

Besides the familiar optical systems cited above, there are many nonclassical optical elements that are used to a limited extent for special purposes. The most familiar of these is the aspheric (nonspherical) surface. Because plane and spherical surfaces are the easiest to generate accurately on glass, most lenses contain only such surfaces. It is occasionally necessary, however, to use some other axially symmetric surface on a lens or mirror, generally to correct a particular aberration. An example is the parabolic surface used for the primary mirror of a large astronomical telescope; another is the elliptic surface molded on the front of the little solid glass reflector units used on highway signs.
Another commonly used optical surface is the side of a cylinder. Such surfaces have power only in the meridian perpendicular to the cylinder axis. Cylindrical lenses are therefore used wherever it is desired to vary the magnification from one meridian to a perpendicular meridian. Cylindrical surfaces are employed in the anamorphic lenses used in some wide-screen motion-picture systems to compress the image horizontally in the camera and stretch it back to its original shape in the projected image.
To correct astigmatism in the eye, many spectacles are made with toric surfaces—i.e., with a stronger curvature in one meridian than in the perpendicular meridian, like the bowl of a teaspoon. These surfaces are generated and polished by special machines and are made by the million every year.
Another nonclassical optical system is the bifocal or trifocal spectacle lens. They are made either by forming two or three separate surfaces on a single piece of glass or obtaining additional power by fusing a piece of high-index glass on to the front of the main lens and then polishing a single spherical surface over both glasses.
Two French scientists, Georges-Louis Buffon and Augustin-Jean Fresnel, in the 18th century suggested forming a lens in concentric rings to save weight, each ring being a portion of what would normally be a continuous spherical surface but flattened out. On a large scale, Fresnel lenses have been used in lighthouses, floodlights, and traffic signals, and as cylindrical ship’s lanterns. With fine steps a few thousandths of an inch wide, molded plastic Fresnel lenses are often used as condensers in overhead projectors and in cameras as a field lens in contact with a ground-glass viewing screen.
Lenses have occasionally been made with one surface taking the form of a flattened cone. Such lenses produce a long, linear image of a point source, lying along the lens axis; for this reason they are commonly referred to as axicons. They have been used to produce a straight line of light in space for aligning machines and shafting, but since about 1965 the beam from a gas laser has generally been used instead.