Calculation of Beam Propagation through a Defected or a Misaligned Two-Lens System

TL;DR

This paper presents a simple method to calculate beam propagation in optical systems with misaligned or defective lenses, addressing real-world deviations caused by manufacturing imperfections or misalignments.

Contribution

It introduces a manual approach to account for constant deviation errors in beam propagation through two-lens systems with defects or misalignments.

Findings

Method effectively models beam deviation due to lens imperfections.

Applicable to systems with non-ideal lenses and optical components.

Provides a practical tool for optical system analysis and correction.

Abstract

An inadvertent or unwanted angular deviation to a passing beam can be introduced by any single optical component within an optical system. The problem arises due to an imperfect tilt alignment of the optical component or manufacturing defects which results in a slightly different response than expected from an ideally aligned/manufactured component. The resulting beam deviation can plague any well-designed optical system that assumes the use of ideal components. The problem is especially introduced by non-ideal lenses, transparent plates and optical windows. Here we present a simple method of manually introducing a deviation error angle which we assume to be constant for all beam incidence angles over the paraxial range.