Abstract

The ray optics is the branch of optics in which all the wave effects are neglected: the light is considered as travelling along rays which can only change their direction by refraction or reflection. On one hand, a further simplifying approximation can be made if attention is restricted to rays travelling close to the optical axis and at small angles: the well-known linear or paraxial approximation introduced by Gauss. On the other hand, in order to take into account the geometrical aberrations, it is sometimes necessary to pay attention to marginal rays with the aid of a ray tracing procedure. This contribution describes a toolbox for the study of optical systems which implements both approaches. It has been developed in the framework of an educational project, but it is general enough to be useful in most of the cases.

© 2007 Optical Society of America