English

Geometric limits to geometric optical imaging with infinite, planar, non-absorbing sheets

Optics 2009-05-25 v2

Abstract

New ray-optical elements allow generalized refraction of light rays, but geometry imposes limitations on possible mappings between the positions of an object and its geometric image. Here I study the case of an infinite, planar, non-absorbing sheet that images the entire three-dimensional space. The most general case of such a sheet is equivalent to a thin lens with different object- and image-sided focal lengths. Special cases include ordinary thin lenses, confocal lenslet arrays, and negative refraction with n_2 = -n_1.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.0901.3669,
  title  = {Geometric limits to geometric optical imaging with infinite, planar, non-absorbing sheets},
  author = {Johannes Courtial},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0901.3669},
  year   = {2009}
}

Comments

10 pages, 1 figure

R2 v1 2026-06-21T12:03:58.698Z