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For a thin lens in air, the focal length is the distance from the center of the lens to the principal foci (or focal points) of the lens.For a converging lens (for example a convex lens), the focal length is positive and is the distance at which a beam of collimated light will be focused to a single spot.
For concave lenses, the focal point is on the back side of the lens, or the output side of the focal plane, and is negative in power. A lens with no optical power is called an optical window, having flat, parallel faces. The optical power directly relates to how large positive images will be magnified, and how small negative images will be ...
Each optical element (surface, interface, mirror, or beam travel) is described by a 2 × 2 ray transfer matrix which operates on a vector describing an incoming light ray to calculate the outgoing ray. Multiplication of the successive matrices thus yields a concise ray transfer matrix describing the entire optical system.
Thin lenses produce focal points on either side that can be modeled using the lensmaker's equation. [5] In general, two types of lenses exist: convex lenses, which cause parallel light rays to converge, and concave lenses, which cause parallel light rays to diverge. The detailed prediction of how images are produced by these lenses can be made ...
Examples of real images include the image produced on a detector in the rear of a camera, and the image produced on an eyeball retina (the camera and eye focus light through an internal convex lens). In ray diagrams (such as the images on the right), real rays of light are always represented by full, solid lines; perceived or extrapolated rays ...
A lens with one convex and one concave side is convex-concave or meniscus. Convex-concave lenses are most commonly used in corrective lenses, since the shape minimizes some aberrations. For a biconvex or plano-convex lens in a lower-index medium, a collimated beam of light passing through the lens converges to a spot (a focus) behind
In microscopy, NA is important because it indicates the resolving power of a lens. The size of the finest detail that can be resolved (the resolution) is proportional to λ / 2NA , where λ is the wavelength of the light. A lens with a larger numerical aperture will be able to visualize finer details than a lens with a smaller numerical ...
Converging lenses have positive optical power, while diverging lenses have negative power. When a lens is immersed in a refractive medium, its optical power and focal length change. For two or more thin lenses close together, the optical power of the combined lenses is approximately equal to the sum of the optical powers of each lens: P = P 1 ...