The resolution and performance of an optical system can be characterized by a quantity known as the modulation transfer function (MTF), which is a measurement of an optical system’s ability to transfer contrast from the specimen to the intermediate image plane at a specific resolution. Accordingly, this study employs skew ray tracing based on a 4 × 4 homogeneous coordinate transformation matrix and Snell’s law to develop a detailed methodology for determining the spot diagram on the image plane when light rays pass through the optical system. And the authors present calculations of the MTF of an optical system by using the spot diagram on the image plane. The numerical results of the proposed methodology are demonstrated using a symmetrical optical system.
Modulation transfer function in the analysis of electro-optical system performance
