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Freeform optical surfaces
Article By:
Hua, Hong College of Optical Sciences, The University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona.
Last reviewed:2014
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1036/1097-8542.YB140260
Freeform optical surfaces are generally defined as optical surfaces that are not rotationally symmetric. These surfaces have played important roles in nonimaging applications, such as illumination optics, for many years, but their use in imaging applications was considered to be rare until recently. Since the emergence of slow-servo diamond-turning fabrication technology around 2002, freeform optical surfaces have been gaining increasingly significant roles in imaging applications. The increased degrees of freedom of a freeform surface offer the opportunity to develop imaging systems with potentially smaller wavefront errors, fewer optical elements, smaller system packages, and lower weights as compared to rotationally symmetric surfaces.
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