Eyepieces often limit the overall optical performance of visual instruments and, because of the wide field-of-view and high-performance requirements, they present a well-known difficult design problem. Improvement of existing eyepieces is limited with the use of conventional design variables. We have designed and fabricated a hybrid diffractive–refractive wide-field (>60°) eyepiece that offers significant improvements over existing conventional eyepieces. The hybrid eyepiece consists of only three common-crown refractive elements and weighs 70% less than an Erfle-type eyepiece, while having enhanced optical performance such as a 50% decrease in pupil spherical aberration and a 25% reduction in distortion. Experimental modulation transfer function results are in excellent agreement with the theoretical performance.

© 1995 Optical Society of America

You do not have subscription access to this journal. Citation lists with outbound citation links are available to subscribers only. You may subscribe either as an OSA member, or as an authorized user of your institution.

Contact your librarian or system administrator
or
Log in to access OSA Member Subscription

You do not have subscription access to this journal. Cited by links are available to subscribers only. You may subscribe either as an OSA member, or as an authorized user of your institution.

Contact your librarian or system administrator
or
Log in to access OSA Member Subscription

You do not have subscription access to this journal. Article level metrics are available to subscribers only. You may subscribe either as an OSA member, or as an authorized user of your institution.

Contact your librarian or system administrator
or
Log in to access OSA Member Subscription