Department of Physics, Weber State University

PHYS 3190, Applied Optics Lab

Experiment #3

Aberrations, Depth of Field

Revised 9/07/10, Some of this is from the Pasco Manual.

Goals: Learn about flaws in optical imaging known as the Seidel aberrations. Explore imaging without optics - build a pinhole camera. Equipment: Optical rail and mounts Large plano-convex lens medium sized lens 75 mm and 150 mm lenses Pinhole object Schlieren setup (for instructor): Long focal length concave mirror White light source

Screen with pinhole (painted white) Lamp with crossed arrows Mounted iris graph paper object for distortion demo

pinholes candle soldering iron

Handling and Safety Notes: The iris diaphragms are delicate and precision devices. Do not force the lever arm as you adjust the opening. Also, avoid touching the fine metal leaves of the iris. Introduction and Overview: So far we have experimented with well behaved refraction, that of thin lenses, small objects, and well aligned optical axes. In this lab well experiment with items having a complicated refraction pattern. Well detect subtle shifts in the refractive index using the Schlieren method, which will be set up by your instructor to save time. For most of the lab you will study the results of non-paraxial optics, i.e. aberrations in the images formed by simple lens systems of large objects. You will need to make careful sketches of the various things that you observe in this lab. Schlieren Technique In 1864, A. Toepler used a knife edge test to examine variance in the refractive indices of a medium. His method is known as the Schlieren method. Schlieren means streaks or striae in German. (Nouns in German are capitalized, hence the word Schlieren is usually capitalized.) Toeplers Original method used a slit light source, a lens, the subject being tested, and a knife edge, see Figure 1.

Figure 1. Toeplers Schlieren setup. When areas of different indices of refraction are encountered, the rays diverge from the knife and
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are blocked from view. Therefore the areas that deflect the light down appear dark. Figure 1 shows unrefracted rays as solid lines and refracted rays as dashed lines. Depending on the length of the system only very small differences in refraction are needed to project the focal point down onto the knife blade. Replacing the single knife blade with a slit will cause both the up and down refractions to be blocked, thereby increasing the sensitivity even more. A dimmer, however more uniform, image can be formed if the slit source is replaced with a pinhole. Another improvement can be made by replacing the lens with a long focal length concave mirror. The mirror produces fewer aberrations than the lens. One can also replace the blade or slit with an obstruction (or simply use the razor blade to block the normal refraction rather than let it pass). Blocking the normal refraction will cause the image to go black except were refraction deflects the light toward your eye. This is called dark field viewing. (You will want to try both.) In our setup we will use a pinhole rather then risk poking our eyes out with a razor blade in the dark! It works best when the sizes of the source and viewing pinholes match. Schlieren methods are widely used in applications such as wind tunnels. Aberrations Aberrations based on third-order theory are known as the Seidel aberrations. Although these aberrations were well known for several centuries before Ludwig Philipp von Seidel (1821-1896) came along, it was von Seidel who first did a rigorous mathematical treatment of the aberrations. Von Seidel was an astronomer and mathematician at the University of Munich. His work led to vast improvements in the quality of the telescopes of that time. It should be noted that these aberrations had already been corrected for somewhat in contemporary optical systems. However, without the mathematical theory in place, the quality of these corrections was somewhat limited. There are 6 primary aberrations that arise in optical systems, the five Seidel aberrations plus chromatic aberration. We will explore all six of these aberrations in this lab. Procedure: Instructors Part I, Schlieren To save time, your instructor will set up this part and you can come experiment with it as you get the chance. It is not a difficult setup. The Schlieren method that will be set up will use a mirror and pinhole, see Figure 2. Investigate the Schlieren effect with several objects in the optical path and describe each one. While looking through the pinhole adjust its position so you can see the effects for both a dark and light background. This is not a large adjustment, go slow. You should try, as a minimum, the following objects. If you can think of others, try them.

Figure 2. The Schlieren setup used in this lab. The distance from the pinhole to the mirror is approximately twice the focal length. The source pinhole and viewing pinhole are conjugate points. C Candle: Place the candle well below the optical path. Look visually across and right above the candle flame. Question 1: Do you see any strong rippling effects due to the rising heat? Now, view this through the Schlieren system, what do you observe? (Be sure to observe in both dark and light field conditions.) How can you explain this?
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Soldering iron: Hold the irons tip both in and just below the optical path. What do you observe? C Your hand: Repeat the previous observations. (The room air will need to be very still to see this effect. You should rest your hand on some object to help hold it very still.) C A microscope slide with an oily finger print on it. (Rub your finger on your forehead then make a very clean, non-smudged print on the slide. Mount the slide on a ring stand.) A cold can of soda pop presents an interesting view. (Look at the bottom of the can if you try this.) Other objects you might try are a tank of water (with and without currents, add some salt or sugar and watch the flow of different concentrations), plastic plates, etc. Some of these latter objects are harder to set up but the results can be spectacular if you get it right. You might also try putting various color filters in front of the source pinhole. A single color will usually give you improved contrast but slightly less sensitivity. Part II, Spherical Aberration and Depth of Field A spherical surface lens does not form a point image of a point object originally positioned on the optical axis. Instead the image is a line segment collinear with the optical axis. Thus there is no exact screen position where the image is in focus. Conversely, the point object can be moved slightly along the axis and still appear to be in focus. The amount of movement which maintains a given image sharpness is called the depth of field. Depth of field varies inversely with aperture size, e.g., small apertures give large depth of field. This phenomenon is familiar to all photographers. See Figure 4 for the optical setup described here. Place the 75 mm F.L. lens to the right of the light source and pinhole target object and adjust the screen for a good focus. Take a couple of minutes to move the object back and forth and see Figure 3. Spherical aberration: perfect how much you can adjust it and still maintain a focused image. Do the same with the screen. The idea is to play with focus (top) vs. real focus (bottom). Note that only the paraxial rays come to focus it a bit to get a sense for how system behaves. near the spot of perfect focus. (Image from Wikimedia.) Now insert the variable aperture close to the lens, either in front of or behind the lens. Close the aperture down to a small opening and make sure it is centered at the lens. Create a data table in your notebook. Use an object distance, s = 150mm, and note the range of the image distance, sN, for which the image is in good focus. Also, note the position, sN, at which the image is in best focus. Do this for several aperture sizes. Use a ruler Figure 4. The optical system youll use to explore spherical to measure the aperture size as best as aberration. The screen is adjusted to show a good image of you can. the pinhole. Nothing is drawn to scale. Plot: Make two plots of your data. Plot depth of field (sN) vs. aperture and plot image distance (sN) vs. aperture. You should probably do this before answering the questions below. Also, think about the bottom image in Figure 3 and what the iris is doing as you ponder your answers.
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Question 2. How is the location of the best focus affected by the size of the aperture? Questions 3. What size aperture gives the best focus, that is, the best image quality/sharpness? What size aperture gives the greatest depth-of-field? Why is this aperture size not practical? Part III, Coma and Astigmatism A spherical surface cannot create a perfect image. This is true even for objects located directly on the optical axis but is especially true for object points located further and further away from the axis. There are five aberrations that are known as the Seidel aberrations. These aberrations were first observed and calculated in detail by the German mathematician Philipp Ludwig von Seidel (1921-1896). The two worst ones are coma and astigmatism. The others are spherical aberration, curvature of field and distortion. We will look at all but the curvature of field (only due to time limits). Coma An object point off the optical axis of a spherical lens is imaged in three dimensions. The tendency of a lens to spread the image of a point into an expanding, blurred, series of overlapping circles is referred to as coma. Using one of the larger lenses (a symmetric lens will work well, but any large lens will do) set up the optical rail as in Figure 5 with a pinhole object, the lens, and a screen. Rotating the lens has the effect of adding a cylindrical component to the lens system. It is also the same thing as having the object off of the optical axis of the lens. Start with the lens axis lined up with the optical rail and obtain a good focus. Rotate the lens holder by approximately 10E about the vertical axis, as per Figure 5. Obtain the best focus and note carefully what the Figure 5. This is a top view onto the optical rail. You will use this shape of the image looks like. Rotate basic setup for both coma and astigmatism. For astigmatism the lens holder further, to about 20E change the light and pinhole for the lighted cross arrow target. and then to ~30E. The point will change into a small comet-like shape. This effect is due to coma. Each time, note what happens to the image. Again, sketches should be part of your observations. As you rotate the lens notice that you need to keep moving the screen in to obtain the best focus. This is called Petzl Field Curvature. We will not be taking the time to explore this in detail but you should be aware of it. For your notebook: You should make a few sketches of what you observe. Astigmatism This form of distortion arises from the same aberration as coma. However, astigmatism refers to the tendency of the lens to image an off-axis point in a dimension parallel to the lens axis. While the lens is rotated 20E or 30E about the vertical axis, move the screen forward and backward and
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observe that the image gradually changes from an ellipse to a distorted circle (circle of least confusion) to an ellipse perpendicular to the first one. This is astigmatism. To further observe astigmatism, use the Coma setup as described above but change the light and pinhole object for the old lighted cross arrow target. Again, with the lens is rotated 20E or 30E about the vertical axis, move the screen forward and backward and observe the image. This time watch the vertical parts of the cross arrow and the horizontal parts. You should see that the best focus for the horizontal parts is at a different position than the best focus for the vertical parts. Again, this is astigmatism. For your notebook: Describe/sketch the image at the best focus and both a bit in front and behind the focus. Do this for both the pinhole and crossed arrow objects. Part IV, Chromatic Aberration Set up the optical rail with a small white light source (the LED desk lamp works well), a single converging lens, and a screen. You have two lenses that have diameters in the range of 50 mm or so. One is a singlet and one is a doublet. Start with the singlet. With the source far enough from the lens to provide a good image on the screen (Id suggest s . 2 f ) set the screen so that you have your best image. 1. 2. 3. Starting at the focus, slowly and carefully move the screen towards the lens. What colors appear and where do they appear? Regain the best image spot again. Now move the lens away from the screen. Again, what colors appear and where do they appear? Repeat this with the doublet.

Questions 4. What is happening to the color with the singlet lens and why? Draw a ray diagram showing a pair of red rays and blue rays such that it would explain your observations. What causes this to happen? How does this compare with what happens with the doublet? Part V, Distortion Place a very large plano-convex lens (the 19 cm diameter lens will work well) directly on a sheet of graph paper, plano side down. Do you notice any distortion of the graph paper and, if so, is it positive or negative. You might need to hold a ruler above the lens to verify what the lines of the graph paper are doing. Now, slowly lift the lens straight up and watch the image carefully. Figure 7. Pincushion distortion Figure 6. Barrel distortion Question 5. Describe what kind of distortion is occurring for the lens as it sits on the graph paper and as it is slowly lifted off the paper.

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Part VI, Optics Take Home Activity: The Pinhole Camera - Imaging without lenses The following activity comes from: http://acept.la.asu.edu/PiN/act/pinhole/pinhole.shtml Cameras have become a standard item in many households since the development of the Polaroid Land Camera in the 1940s. Today, the cameras (and the lenses they use) have become expensive and complicated pieces of machinery and electronics. The principles behind cameras are still quite simple, however. The most basic type of camera is the pinhole camera, which can be made from a shoe box, aluminum foil, and sheet film. In this activity, we'll learn how to make a simple pinhole camera (well call it a pinhole scope since there is no film) and why it works. Procedure Gather these items: Cardboard tube from a roll of paper towels or toilet paper roll. Cardboard tube from a roll of aluminum foil or plastic wrap (smaller diameter than the tube from the paper towels) Make sure one of the cardboard tubes has a smaller diameter than the other. a 2"x 2" piece of aluminum foil white plastic shopping bag like what you get from the grocery store a rubber band a small pin, needle, or thumbtack On one end of the smaller tube tape a piece of white plastic shopping bag so that it covers the end of the tube. This will be your image screen. Note: This takes the place of the rows of tape in the figure and works a lot better.

On one end of the larger tube place the aluminum foil over the hole so that it completely covers the hole and use the rubber band around the tube to hold the foil in place. (Or you can just tape it in place.)

With your pin or needle, poke a small hole in the center of the aluminum foil covering the hole. Smaller holes result in sharper images but also result in dimmer images. Start small and make the hole larger if you need to.

Slide the two tubes together so that the screen and the aluminum foil are on the same side. If you slide the little tube inside the bigger one, the screen should slide right up against the foil.

Find a bare light bulb or a bright light source (long straight fluorescent lights don't work that well) that you can view with your new Pinhole Scope.

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Stand about 2 ro 3 meters from the light and look at the light source through your Pinhole Scope. Slide the tubes back and forth until you see an image of the light in focus before your eyes. If it is bright outside, try looking out a window or stepping outside (stand in the shade while looking at a bright scene). You've just made a simple camera! To see multiple images of the light, poke several holes into the aluminum foil and point the Viewer at the light source. Questions 6: Rotate your Scope while looking at the light. What do you notice about the images? Do they rotate with the scope? How does a simple hole and a viewing screen allow you to see an image of the light source? Why are the images upside-down? Draw the paths of light as they come from the light, through the hole, and onto the screen. Finally, bring your pinhole masterpiece in for your instructor to see.

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