Optical Design and Analysis

doi:10.1117/3.2553485.ch13

Book: Photonics Rules of Thumb, Third Edition

Author(s): John Lester Miller, Katie Schwertz, Edward J. Friedman, John N. Sanders-Reed, Brian K. McComas

Published: 2020

https://doi.org/10.1117/3.2553485.ch13

Author Affiliations +

Abstract

Developments in optics have been linked to specific engineering applications. Optics of antiquity, until about 1700, existed mainly as an aid to vision or for a tiny part of the population, or astronomy or military applications. From about 1600 to World War II, the main impetus for optical development was to develop better instruments for astronomy, window glass, and other industrial applications. Many major developments during this era were in some way geared to astronomy (e.g., the Foucault knife-edge test, interferometers, new telescopes, and so on). Military needs dominated optics development from World War II to the 1990s. In the 1990s, the military remained a driving force, but its (and NASA’s) technologies were commercialized, leading to an explosion in applications in consumer products, high-bandwidth communications (fiber optics). and science. More recently, the driving force is smartphone cameras, self-driving vehicles, bionics, and robotics.