Ray (optics)

Last updated February 25, 2024

In optics, a ray is an idealized geometrical model of light or other electromagnetic radiation, obtained by choosing a curve that is perpendicular to the wavefronts of the actual light, and that points in the direction of energy flow.^[1]^[2] Rays are used to model the propagation of light through an optical system, by dividing the real light field up into discrete rays that can be computationally propagated through the system by the techniques of ray tracing . This allows even very complex optical systems to be analyzed mathematically or simulated by computer. Ray tracing uses approximate solutions to Maxwell's equations that are valid as long as the light waves propagate through and around objects whose dimensions are much greater than the light's wavelength. Ray optics or geometrical optics does not describe phenomena such as diffraction, which require wave optics theory. Some wave phenomena such as interference can be modeled in limited circumstances by adding phase to the ray model.

Definition

A light ray is a line (straight or curved) that is perpendicular to the light's wavefronts; its tangent is collinear with the wave vector. Light rays in homogeneous media are straight. They bend at the interface between two dissimilar media and may be curved in a medium in which the refractive index changes. Geometric optics describes how rays propagate through an optical system. Objects to be imaged are treated as collections of independent point sources, each producing spherical wavefronts and corresponding outward rays. Rays from each object point can be mathematically propagated to locate the corresponding point on the image.

A slightly more rigorous definition of a light ray follows from Fermat's principle, which states that the path taken between two points by a ray of light is the path that can be traversed in the least time.^[3]

Special rays

There are many special rays that are used in optical modelling to analyze an optical system. These are defined and described below, grouped by the type of system they are used to model.

Interaction with surfaces

An incident ray is a ray of light that strikes a surface. The angle between this ray and the perpendicular or normal to the surface is the angle of incidence.
The reflected ray corresponding to a given incident ray, is the ray that represents the light reflected by the surface. The angle between the surface normal and the reflected ray is known as the angle of reflection. The Law of Reflection says that for a specular (non-scattering) surface, the angle of reflection is always equal to the angle of incidence.
The refracted ray or transmitted ray corresponding to a given incident ray represents the light that is transmitted through the surface. The angle between this ray and the normal is known as the angle of refraction, and it is given by Snell's Law. Conservation of energy requires that the power in the incident ray must equal the sum of the power in the refracted ray, the power in the reflected ray, and any power absorbed at the surface.
If the material is birefringent, the refracted ray may split into ordinary and extraordinary rays, which experience different indexes of refraction when passing through the birefringent material.

Optical systems

A meridional ray or tangential ray is a ray that is confined to the plane containing the system's optical axis and the object point from which the ray originated.^[4]
A skew ray is a ray that does not propagate in a plane that contains both the object point and the optical axis. Such rays do not cross the optical axis anywhere and are not parallel to it.^[4]
The marginal ray (sometimes known as an a ray or a marginal axial ray) in an optical system is the meridional ray that starts at the point where an object to be imaged crosses the optical axis (the axial object point) and touches an edge of the aperture stop of the system.^[5]^[6]^[7] This ray is useful, because it crosses the optical axis again at the locations where a real image will be formed, and backward extensions of the ray's path cross the axis where a virtual image will be formed. Since the entrance pupil and exit pupil are images of the aperture stop, for real image pupils, the distance of the marginal ray from the optical axis at the pupil locations defines the sizes of each pupil. For virtual image pupils, an extended line, forward along the marginal ray before the first optical element or backward along the marginal ray before the last optical element, determines the size of the entrance or exit pupil, respectively.
The principal ray or chief ray (sometimes known as the b ray) in an optical system is the meridional ray that starts at an edge of an object and passes through the center of the aperture stop.^[5]^[8]^[7] The distance between the chief ray (or an extension of it for a virtual image) and the optical axis at an image location defines the size of the image. This ray (or forward and backward extensions of it for virtual image pupils) crosses the optical axis at the locations of the entrance and exit pupils. The marginal and chief rays together define the Lagrange invariant, which characterizes the throughput or etendue of the optical system.^[9] Some authors define a "principal ray" for each object point, and in this case, the principal ray starting at an edge point of the object may then be called the marginal principal ray.^[6]
A sagittal ray or transverse ray from an off-axis object point is a ray that propagates in the plane that is perpendicular to the meridional plane and contains the principal ray.^[4] Sagittal rays intersect the pupil along a line that is perpendicular to the meridional plane for the ray's object point and passes through the optical axis. If the axis direction is defined to be the z axis, and the meridional plane is the y-z plane, sagittal rays intersect the pupil at y_p= 0. The principal ray is both sagittal and meridional.^[4] All other sagittal rays are skew rays.
A paraxial ray is a ray that makes a small angle to the optical axis of the system, and lies close to the axis throughout the system.^[10] Such rays can be modeled reasonably well by using the paraxial approximation. When discussing ray tracing this definition is often reversed: a "paraxial ray" is then a ray that is modeled using the paraxial approximation, not necessarily a ray that remains close to the axis.^[11]^[12]
A finite ray or real ray is a ray that is traced without making the paraxial approximation.^[12]^[13]
A parabasal ray is a ray that propagates close to some defined "base ray" rather than the optical axis.^[14] This is more appropriate than the paraxial model in systems that lack symmetry about the optical axis. In computer modeling, parabasal rays are "real rays", that is rays that are treated without making the paraxial approximation. Parabasal rays about the optical axis are sometimes used to calculate first-order properties of optical systems.^[15]

Fiber optics

A meridional ray is a ray that passes through the axis of an optical fiber.
A skew ray is a ray that travels in a non-planar zig-zag path and never crosses the axis of an optical fiber.
A guided ray , bound ray, or trapped ray is a ray in a multi-mode optical fiber, which is confined by the core. For step index fiber, light entering the fiber will be guided if it makes an angle with the fiber axis that is less than the fiber's acceptance angle.
A leaky ray or tunneling ray is a ray in an optical fiber that geometric optics predicts would totally reflect at the boundary between the core and the cladding, but which suffers loss due to the curved core boundary.

Geometrical optics

Geometrical optics, or ray optics, is a model of optics that describes light propagation in terms of rays. The ray in geometrical optics is an abstraction useful for approximating the paths along which light propagates under certain circumstances.

The simplifying assumptions of geometrical optics include that light rays:

propagate in straight-line paths as they travel in a homogeneous medium
bend, and in particular circumstances may split in two, at the interface between two dissimilar media
follow curved paths in a medium in which the refractive index changes
may be absorbed or reflected.

Geometrical optics does not account for certain optical effects such as diffraction and interference. This simplification is useful in practice; it is an excellent approximation when the wavelength is small compared to the size of structures with which the light interacts. The techniques are particularly useful in describing geometrical aspects of imaging, including optical aberrations.

Ray tracing

In physics, ray tracing is a method for calculating the path of waves or particles through a system with regions of varying propagation velocity, absorption characteristics, and reflecting surfaces. Under these circumstances, wavefronts may bend, change direction, or reflect off surfaces, complicating analysis. Ray tracing solves the problem by repeatedly advancing idealized narrow beams called rays through the medium by discrete amounts. Simple problems can be analyzed by propagating a few rays using simple mathematics. More detailed analysis can be performed by using a computer to propagate many rays.

When applied to problems of electromagnetic radiation, ray tracing often relies on approximate solutions to Maxwell's equations that are valid as long as the light waves propagate through and around objects whose dimensions are much greater than the light's wavelength. Ray theory does not describe phenomena such as interference and diffraction, which require wave theory (involving the phase of the wave).

Related Research Articles

In optics, aberration is a property of optical systems, such as lenses, that causes light to be spread out over some region of space rather than focused to a point. Aberrations cause the image formed by a lens to be blurred or distorted, with the nature of the distortion depending on the type of aberration. Aberration can be defined as a departure of the performance of an optical system from the predictions of paraxial optics. In an imaging system, it occurs when light from one point of an object does not converge into a single point after transmission through the system. Aberrations occur because the simple paraxial theory is not a completely accurate model of the effect of an optical system on light, rather than due to flaws in the optical elements.

$<span class="mw-page-title-main">Diffraction</span> Phenomenon of the motion of waves$

Diffraction is the interference or bending of waves around the corners of an obstacle or through an aperture into the region of geometrical shadow of the obstacle/aperture. The diffracting object or aperture effectively becomes a secondary source of the propagating wave. Italian scientist Francesco Maria Grimaldi coined the word diffraction and was the first to record accurate observations of the phenomenon in 1660.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Optics</span> Branch of physics that studies light

Optics is the branch of physics that studies the behaviour and properties of light, including its interactions with matter and the construction of instruments that use or detect it. Optics usually describes the behaviour of visible, ultraviolet, and infrared light. Light is a type of electromagnetic radiation, and other forms of electromagnetic radiation such as X-rays, microwaves, and radio waves exhibit similar properties.

In optics, the numerical aperture (NA) of an optical system is a dimensionless number that characterizes the range of angles over which the system can accept or emit light. By incorporating index of refraction in its definition, NA has the property that it is constant for a beam as it goes from one material to another, provided there is no refractive power at the interface. The exact definition of the term varies slightly between different areas of optics. Numerical aperture is commonly used in microscopy to describe the acceptance cone of an objective, and in fiber optics, in which it describes the range of angles within which light that is incident on the fiber will be transmitted along it.

An optical axis is an imaginary line that passes through the geometrical center of an optical system such as a camera lens, microscope or telescopic sight. Lens elements often have rotational symmetry about the axis.

Ray transfer matrix analysis is a mathematical form for performing ray tracing calculations in sufficiently simple problems which can be solved considering only paraxial rays. Each optical element is described by a 2×2 ray transfer matrix which operates on a vector describing an incoming light ray to calculate the outgoing ray. Multiplication of the successive matrices thus yields a concise ray transfer matrix describing the entire optical system. The same mathematics is also used in accelerator physics to track particles through the magnet installations of a particle accelerator, see electron optics.

Optics is the branch of physics which involves the behavior and properties of light, including its interactions with matter and the construction of instruments that use or detect it. Optics usually describes the behavior of visible, ultraviolet, and infrared light. Because light is an electromagnetic wave, other forms of electromagnetic radiation such as X-rays, microwaves, and radio waves exhibit similar properties.

Reflection is the change in direction of a wavefront at an interface between two different media so that the wavefront returns into the medium from which it originated. Common examples include the reflection of light, sound and water waves. The law of reflection says that for specular reflection the angle at which the wave is incident on the surface equals the angle at which it is reflected.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Astigmatism (optical systems)</span> Optical aberration

An optical system with astigmatism is one where rays that propagate in two perpendicular planes have different foci. If an optical system with astigmatism is used to form an image of a cross, the vertical and horizontal lines will be in sharp focus at two different distances. The term comes from the Greek α- (a-) meaning "without" and στίγμα (stigma), "a mark, spot, puncture".

Geometrical optics, or ray optics, is a model of optics that describes light propagation in terms of rays. The ray in geometrical optics is an abstraction useful for approximating the paths along which light propagates under certain circumstances.

Electron optics is a mathematical framework for the calculation of electron trajectories in the presence of electromagnetic fields. The term optics is used because magnetic and electrostatic lenses act upon a charged particle beam similarly to optical lenses upon a light beam.

Gaussian optics is a technique in geometrical optics that describes the behaviour of light rays in optical systems by using the paraxial approximation, in which only rays which make small angles with the optical axis of the system are considered. In this approximation, trigonometric functions can be expressed as linear functions of the angles. Gaussian optics applies to systems in which all the optical surfaces are either flat or are portions of a sphere. In this case, simple explicit formulae can be given for parameters of an imaging system such as focal length, magnification and brightness, in terms of the geometrical shapes and material properties of the constituent elements.

In geometric optics, the paraxial approximation is a small-angle approximation used in Gaussian optics and ray tracing of light through an optical system.

Nonimaging optics is a branch of optics that is concerned with the optimal transfer of light radiation between a source and a target. Unlike traditional imaging optics, the techniques involved do not attempt to form an image of the source; instead an optimized optical system for optimal radiative transfer from a source to a target is desired.

In an optical system, the entrance pupil is the optical image of the physical aperture stop, as 'seen' through the front of the lens system. The corresponding image of the aperture as seen through the back of the lens system is called the exit pupil. If there is no lens in front of the aperture, the entrance pupil's location and size are identical to those of the aperture. Optical elements in front of the aperture will produce a magnified or diminished image that is displaced from the location of the physical aperture. The entrance pupil is usually a virtual image: it lies behind the first optical surface of the system.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thin lens</span> Lens with a thickness that is negligible

In optics, a thin lens is a lens with a thickness that is negligible compared to the radii of curvature of the lens surfaces. Lenses whose thickness is not negligible are sometimes called thick lenses.

In Gaussian optics, the cardinal points consist of three pairs of points located on the optical axis of a rotationally symmetric, focal, optical system. These are the focal points, the principal points, and the nodal points; there are two of each. For ideal systems, the basic imaging properties such as image size, location, and orientation are completely determined by the locations of the cardinal points; in fact, only four points are necessary: the two focal points and either the principal points or the nodal points. The only ideal system that has been achieved in practice is a plane mirror, however the cardinal points are widely used to approximate the behavior of real optical systems. Cardinal points provide a way to analytically simplify an optical system with many components, allowing the imaging characteristics of the system to be approximately determined with simple calculations.

In optics, tilt is a deviation in the direction a beam of light propagates.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vergence (optics)</span> Angle between converging or diverging light rays

In optics, vergence is the angle formed by rays of light that are not perfectly parallel to one another. Rays that move closer to the optical axis as they propagate are said to be converging, while rays that move away from the axis are diverging. These imaginary rays are always perpendicular to the wavefront of the light, thus the vergence of the light is directly related to the radii of curvature of the wavefronts. A convex lens or concave mirror will cause parallel rays to focus, converging toward a point. Beyond that focal point, the rays diverge. Conversely, a concave lens or convex mirror will cause parallel rays to diverge.

In physics, ray tracing is a method for calculating the path of waves or particles through a system with regions of varying propagation velocity, absorption characteristics, and reflecting surfaces. Under these circumstances, wavefronts may bend, change direction, or reflect off surfaces, complicating analysis. Ray tracing solves the problem by repeatedly advancing idealized narrow beams called rays through the medium by discrete amounts. Simple problems can be analyzed by propagating a few rays using simple mathematics. More detailed analysis can be performed by using a computer to propagate many rays.

References

↑ Moore, Ken (25 July 2005). "What is a ray?". ZEMAX Users' Knowledge Base. Retrieved 30 May 2008.
↑ Greivenkamp, John E. (2004). Field Guide to Geometric Optics. SPIE Field Guides. p. 2. ISBN 0819452947.
↑ Arthur Schuster, An Introduction to the Theory of Optics, London: Edward Arnold, 1904 online.
1 2 3 4 Stewart, James E. (1996). Optical Principles and Technology for Engineers. CRC. p. 57. ISBN 978-0-8247-9705-8.
1 2 Greivenkamp, John E. (2004). Field Guide to Geometrical Optics. SPIE Field Guides vol. FG01. SPIE. ISBN 0-8194-5294-7., p. 25 .
1 2 Riedl, Max J. (2001). Optical Design Fundamentals for Infrared Systems. Tutorial texts in optical engineering. Vol. 48. SPIE. p. 1. ISBN 978-0-8194-4051-8.
1 2 Hecht, Eugene (2017). "5.3.2 Entrance and Exit Pupils". Optics (5th ed.). Pearson. p. 184. ISBN 978-1-292-09693-3.
↑ Malacara, Daniel and Zacarias (2003). Handbook of Optical Design (2nd ed.). CRC. p. 25. ISBN 978-0-8247-4613-1.
↑ Greivenkamp (2004), p. 28 .
↑ Greivenkamp (2004), pp. 19–20 .
↑ Nicholson, Mark (21 July 2005). "Understanding Paraxial Ray-Tracing". ZEMAX Users' Knowledge Base. Retrieved 17 August 2009.
1 2 Atchison, David A.; Smith, George (2000). "A1: Paraxial optics". Optics of the Human Eye. Elsevier Health Sciences. p. 237. ISBN 978-0-7506-3775-6.
↑ Welford, W. T. (1986). "4: Finite Raytracing". Aberrations of Optical Systems. Adam Hilger series on optics and optoelectronics. CRC Press. p. 50. ISBN 978-0-85274-564-9.
↑ Buchdahl, H. A. (1993). An Introduction to Hamiltonian Optics. Dover. p. 26. ISBN 978-0-486-67597-8.
↑ Nicholson, Mark (21 July 2005). "Understanding Paraxial Ray-Tracing". ZEMAX Users' Knowledge Base. p. 2. Retrieved 17 August 2009.

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[1] Moore, Ken (25 July 2005). "What is a ray?". ZEMAX Users' Knowledge Base. Retrieved 30 May 2008.

[Greivenkamp2-2] Greivenkamp, John E. (2004). Field Guide to Geometric Optics. SPIE Field Guides. p. 2. ISBN 0819452947.

[3] Arthur Schuster, An Introduction to the Theory of Optics, London: Edward Arnold, 1904 online.

[Stewart-4] 1 2 3 4 Stewart, James E. (1996). Optical Principles and Technology for Engineers. CRC. p. 57. ISBN 978-0-8247-9705-8.

[Greivenkamp25-5] 1 2 Greivenkamp, John E. (2004). Field Guide to Geometrical Optics. SPIE Field Guides vol. FG01. SPIE. ISBN 0-8194-5294-7., p. 25 .

[Riedl-6] 1 2 Riedl, Max J. (2001). Optical Design Fundamentals for Infrared Systems. Tutorial texts in optical engineering. Vol. 48. SPIE. p. 1. ISBN 978-0-8194-4051-8.

[:0-7] 1 2 Hecht, Eugene (2017). "5.3.2 Entrance and Exit Pupils". Optics (5th ed.). Pearson. p. 184. ISBN 978-1-292-09693-3.

[8] Malacara, Daniel and Zacarias (2003). Handbook of Optical Design (2nd ed.). CRC. p. 25. ISBN 978-0-8247-4613-1.

[Greivenkamp28-9] Greivenkamp (2004), p. 28 .

[10] Greivenkamp (2004), pp. 19–20 .

[11] Nicholson, Mark (21 July 2005). "Understanding Paraxial Ray-Tracing". ZEMAX Users' Knowledge Base. Retrieved 17 August 2009.

[Atchison-12] 1 2 Atchison, David A.; Smith, George (2000). "A1: Paraxial optics". Optics of the Human Eye. Elsevier Health Sciences. p. 237. ISBN 978-0-7506-3775-6.

[13] Welford, W. T. (1986). "4: Finite Raytracing". Aberrations of Optical Systems. Adam Hilger series on optics and optoelectronics. CRC Press. p. 50. ISBN 978-0-85274-564-9.

[14] Buchdahl, H. A. (1993). An Introduction to Hamiltonian Optics. Dover. p. 26. ISBN 978-0-486-67597-8.

[15] Nicholson, Mark (21 July 2005). "Understanding Paraxial Ray-Tracing". ZEMAX Users' Knowledge Base. p. 2. Retrieved 17 August 2009.

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