Three-dimensional optical transfer function of optical system: from sophisticated calculation to simple approximation

Abstract

he paper presents the approximation of the three-dimensional optical transfer function of diffraction-limited non coherent optical systems with axial symmetry. This approximation is based on the analytical expression for identification of three-dimensional spatial cutoff frequencies that specifies the spatial bandwidth in three-dimensional space of spatial harmonics. It does not require numerical integrations. The proposed techniques makes calculation of the three dimensional optical transfer functions accurate, easy and fast. It can be applied for performance evaluation, analysis of spatial resolution, computer simulation of imaging systems etc.