Abstract Compact size, high brightness and wide field of view (FOV) are key requirements for long-wave infrared imagers used in military surveillance or night navigation. However, to meet the imaging requirements of high resolution and wide FOV, infrared optical systems often adopt complex optical lens groups, which will increase the size and weight of the optical system. In this paper, a strategy based on wavefront coding (WFC) is proposed to design a compact wide-FOV infrared imager. A cubic phase mask is inserted into the pupil plane of the infrared imager to correct the aberration. The simulated results show that, the WFC infrared imager has good imaging quality in a wide FOV of ±16°. In addition, the WFC infrared imager achieves compactness with its 40 mm × 40 mm × 40 mm size. A fast focal ratio of 1 combined with an entrance pupil diameter of 25 mm ensures brightness. This work is of significance for designing a compact wide-FOV infrared imager.
Zhu et al. (Wed,) studied this question.