Abstract: Catadioptric imaging systems with large acceptance aperture are widely used in robot navigation and safety monitoring fields and so on. The sixth-order wave aberration theory of ultrawideangle optical system applied to the aberration calculation method for aspherical optical system is analyzed firstly. Then, based on the sixth-order wave aberration theory, the aberration optimization evaluation objective function for aspherical catadioptric imaging system with large acceptance aperture is established, an optimization algorithm for solving the function consisting of multiple optical parameters is given, and the optimized structure parameters of the optical system are obtained. Finally, an optical system with wavelength ranging from 400 nm to 700 nm, maximum field of view angle of 120°, F number of 2.6 and good imaging performance is designed using the proposed method. Results of the design case show that the proposed method is effective, which can provide an effective means for aberration optimization of catadioptric imaging systems with large acceptance aperture.

Key words: geometric optics, aberration optimization, aspheric surface, large acceptance aperture, plane symmetry