The effect of broadband illumination on the imaging characteristics of a birefringent lens suffering from primary spherical aberration

This report forms a part of the systematic investigation on the imaging behaviour of an optical system consisting of a lens made of a uniaxial birefringent crystal sandwiched between two linear polarizers into which primary spherical aberration is introduced. The optic axis of the birefringent crystal is perpendicular to the lens axis. The proposed system is illuminated with a polychromatic beam of light, the spectral profile of which is considered to be uniform for all wavelengths. The axial irradiance distribution function and the intensity point spread function are used as the image assessment parameters. Some specific cases are computed and illustrated graphically. The study reveals that if the variation of the birefringent parameters of the device with wavelength is less, a larger bandwidth may be used without considerably deviating from the imaging characteristics under strictly monochromatic illumination suffering from similar primary spherical aberration.