POSTMODERN LENS DESIGN

Global optimization is examined from the viewpoint of lens design for commercial production optics and is found to be unsatisfactory in its present state because of the need of the lens designer to remain involved in rather than divorced from the work. A genetic algorithm based on the use of nearly zero power operators that perform structural changes to a Gaussian optics system design is proposed. The algorithm selects operators that improve system performance or fitness using procedures of mating and random crossover and breeds succeeding generations of new operators that, when applied to the starting Gaussian optics system and then optimized, yield an improved lens design. The algorithm is efficient, robust, and allows lens designers to relate to designs in terms of aberration correcting means.