Stray light analysis and suppression of panoramic annular lens

A new stray light analysis method and some suppression principles of panoramic annular lens (PAL) are introduced in this paper. The proposed method is to find stray light paths which are caused by ray splitting on two refractive surfaces of the PAL block and then cut them off. Following this principle, the stray light paths can be eliminated in the design progress by adding specific merit functions into the optical software. The methods to reduce scatter, diffraction and other stray light are also proposed. A new PAL with a field of view (FOV) of 30 degrees similar to 100 degrees x 360 degrees is designed. The stray light is suppressed more than 80% compared with a similar conventional PAL. The stray light path analysis method also can be used in other catadioptric optics. (C) 2013 Optical Society of America