Experience
Stray Light Analysis
Quantifying and mitigating unwanted light in optical systems
Stray light is any unwanted light that makes its way to the image. In many cases, stray light can cause unwanted artifacts such as lens flare and loss of contrast. OEA has extensive experience in quantifying and mitigating stray light in optical systems, including stray light assessment for Intra Ocular Lenses (IOLs) and stray light reduction in microscope and telescope systems.
What is Stray Light?
- Any unwanted light reaching the image plane
- Causes lens flare and ghost images
- Reduces image contrast and MTF
- Can degrade system performance significantly
OEA's Approach
- Quantitative stray light modeling with FRED
- Identification of critical and illuminated surfaces
- Scatter and ghost reflection analysis
- Mitigation strategy development
- Verification through simulation
Tools & Software
- FRED Optical Engineering Software
- Zemax OpticStudio
- Custom scatter models
- MTF and PSF analysis
Sample Projects
Intra Ocular Lens (IOL) Stray Light Assessment
Quantitative evaluation of stray light in IOL systems to assess impact on visual quality.
Microscope Stray Light Reduction
Analysis and mitigation strategies for stray light in high-performance microscope systems.
Telescope Stray Light Mitigation
Identification and reduction of stray light sources in telescope optical systems.
Diffractive Optics Image Quality
The images below show how stray light assessment impacts an optical system. In this case, a web camera lens with a diffractive lens is evaluated. The stray light due to the diffractive lens results in a loss of contrast as shown by the MTF.