Orthonormal aberration decomposition for circular aperture and rectangular field with extension to multiple-aperture systems

A new set of orthogonal polynomials and the traditional Zernike polynomials are combined to construct the wavefront of the sparse aperture (SA) optical system. The new set of orthogonal polynomials in the rectangular domain is derived based on the Zernike polynomials. The modulation transfer functions (MTFs) of the SA system under different fields of view are calculated. The effects of some wavefront terms on the field-related MTF are analyzed. Imaging simulation and restoration are conducted for the SA system. The results indicate that the wavefront of the SA system can be represented by the combination of the new set of orthogonal polynomials and the Zernike polynomials. The former represents the field term, and the latter represents the pupil term of the wavefront. The field-related Wiener filter is constructed to restore the imaging results of the SA system, and the results show that the image quality can be improved greatly through restoration.