Kenji TATSUMI

Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, Information Technology R&D Center, Electro-optics & Microwave Systems Laboratory, 5-1-1, Ofuna, Kamakura, Kanagawa, 247 Japan

(Received March 28, 1996; Accepted July 23, 1996)

Analytical expression for the two principal foci of the astigmatic image generated by the diffractive optical elements with aspheric phase term were derived using the ray tracing technique. The relation is given between the principal foci and the coefficients of the aspherical phase term expanded by polynomials. Numerical examples are discussed and compared with the experimental results previously reported. The formulas given here include the equations derived by considering the propagations of an astigmatic wavefront through a hologram.

Key words : diffractive optical elements, astigmatic aberration, ray tracing, geometrical optics, grating equation