Focus correction in an apodized system with spherical aberration

Abstract

We performed a theoretical and computational analysis of the through-focus axial irradiance in a system with a Gaussian amplitude pupil function and fourth- and sixth-order spherical aberration (SA). Two cases are analyzed: low aberrated systems, and the human eye containing significant levels of SA and a natural apodization produced by the Stiles–Crawford effect. Results show that apodization only produces a refraction change of the plane that maximized the Strehl ratio for eyes containing significant levels of negative SA.