A Design of Mid-wave Infrared Integral Catadioptric Optical System with Wide FOV

In order to deduce the difficult), of fixing the Ritchey-Chretien (R-C) dual reflective optical system and enhance the stability of the secondary mirror, a compact integral structure is presented here composed of two transmitting and two reflective aspheric surfaces. The four surfaces were manufactured from a single germanium lens and integrated together. The two reflective surfaces formed by coating the inner reflecting films were assembled in one lens. It makes the installation of the two mirrors easier and the structure of the secondary mirror more stable. A design of mid-wave infrared (MWIR) compact imaging system is presented with a spectral range chosen as 3.7-4.8 mu m. The effective focal length is f=90 mm. The field of view (FOV) for the lens is 4.88 degrees. It has good imaging capability with Modulation Transfer Function (MTF) of all field of view more than 0.55 close to the diffraction limitation. Outdoor experiments were carried out and it is shown that the integral catadioptric optical system performs well on imaging.