Catadioptric Imaging System Based on Pancake Lenses

In order to reduce costs and weight, many modern application introduce smart ways to minituarize their optical systems. One particular implementation of this principle is the folded imaging system, in which the property of a focusing lens is distributed between multiple components. By cleverly manipulating the polarizations status of the propagated light, this system allows for multiple internal reflection, mimicking the functionality of a much bigger lens. In this Use Case we show the working principle of such a system. For this purpose, we defined a set of Plane Wave with different incident angles, which then are propagated through the system to calculate the focal spots at the end. This information can then be used to further optimize the setup, but this is out of the scope of this Use Case.