An aplanatic lens is a lens that is free of both spherical and coma aberrations. In double-pass aplanatic optics laser beam delivery systems where light interacts with a surface or element more than once – a double pass system – we must use additional surfaces to define a second pass instance. This is tedious at best, and prone for errors at worst. How can we automate this time-consuming process, here we share it.
The initial input data is as below:
The “Make Double Pass tool” is a convenient way to replicate and reverse a sequential system in design a double-pass aplanatic laser beam delivery system.
The Make Double Pass tool is found in the toolbar of the LDE: Lens Data Editor…Make Double Pass. The make double pass tool is very simple to use and only requires the user to specify the surface at which rays are to reflect.
The reflect surface is converted to a mirror, all surfaces prior to it are replicated in reverse after the mirror, and pickup solves are applied to all parameters (including lens and extra data values) to link the first and second pass surface data. Note that any nominal surfaces that come after the reflect surface will be deleted when using this tool.
Open the double-pass aplanatic optics laser beam delivery system sample file attached to this article. The file attached in the end of this article models an aplanatic laser beam delivery system with a decentered beam incident upon the optical system. It is to simulate a double pass system, whereby the beam reflects from the image plane and travels back through the optical components. 
This can easily be done with the Make Double Pass tool. Open the tool and select surface 14 as the reflect surface.
After pressing OK, notice the layout updates to show the beam coming in through the bottom of the lenses, reflecting off surface 14, and exiting through the top of the lenses.
The design file used in this particle is attached, please download it here. How to design a double-pass aplanatic laser beam delivery system
Reference Source:
- Laikin, Milton. Lens Design. CRC Press, 2007.
- https://www.zemax.com/
- Zemax Optical Design Program User’s Guide, Zemax Development Corporation
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
