Effects of spherical aberration to the laser beam of a bar code scanner

The modulation transfer function of bar code scanning is a useful tool for evaluating the performance of the scanning laser beam. Understanding the behavior of the scanning laser system near the end of its depth of focus is of particular interest because it may lead to the development of techniques that could effective extend the depth of focus. In the article the MTF at focus and the two extremes of the depth of focus are presented. The presence of spherical aberration in the scanning laser beam generally reduces the depth of focus. The effects of the spherical aberration to the MTF is presented and discussed.