Gaussian beam ray-equivalent modeling and optical design

It is shown that the propagation and transformation of a simply astigmatic Gaussian beam by an optical system with a characteristic ABCD matrix can be modeled by relatively simple equations whose terms consist solely of the heights and slopes of two paraxial rays. These equations are derived from the ABCD law of Gaussian beam transformation. They can be used in conjunction with a conventional automatic optical design program to design and optimize Gaussian beam optical systems. Several design examples are given using the CODE-V optical design package.