EFFECTS OF 3RD-ORDER SPHERICAL-ABERRATION ON THE 3-D INCOHERENT OPTICAL TRANSFER-FUNCTION

We derive the expression for the 3-D incoherent optical transfer function when third-order spherical aberration is present. The normalized verision of the transfer function is numerically calculated for variousamounts of spherical aberration. We find the effects of the aberration to be highly dependent on the spatialfrequency in the longitudinal direction. We also calculate a structure content parameter, as a qualitycriterion, from the normalized transfer function. The structure content parameter dependence on sphericalaberration is well-fit by a simply Cauchy curve for aberrations out to two waves at the margin. © 1990 Optical Society of America.