Freeform Optical Systems: Design and Applications
A special issue of Photonics (ISSN 2304-6732).
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 July 2025 | Viewed by 927
Special Issue Editors
Interests: optical design; freeform optics; binary optics; all-metal optical-mechanical system; optical imaging; beam-shaping; advanced optoelectronic imaging and detection systems
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: optical design; freeform optics; binary optics; optical imaging; optical detection; optical inspection; optical instrument; optical sensor
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
In the field of optical engineering, wide-swath remote sensing, optical satellite networking and high-numerical-aperture extreme ultraviolet lithography are becoming increasingly important for high-performance, ultra-compact, advanced optical systems with a large field of view. This poses great challenges to traditional optical-system construction methods based on spherical or aspherical surfaces, and urgently requires the development of new optical imaging technologies.
Freeform optics is widely regarded as a revolutionary optical imaging technology. Compared with traditional rotationally symmetric surfaces (spherical or aspherical mirrors), freeform surfaces can have any asymmetry, have more flexible surface shapes, and can bring more design freedom to optical design. They have strong surface-description and good aberration-correction abilities. Therefore, freeform surfaces are particularly suitable for correcting aberrations in optical systems, especially for asymmetric optical systems. They can reduce the number of components in the system, decrease the volume and mass of the system, increase the field of view of imaging, and achieve system parameters, structures, and functions that are difficult to achieve with traditional optical systems. Freeform surfaces have injected enormous potential into the development of optical design and are currently one of the research hotspots in the field of optical design.
In this Special Issue, “Freeform Optical Systems: Design and Applications”, we invite you to contribute your cutting-edge research findings in this exciting field. We are particularly interested in papers related to the following topics:
- Fundamental theories and principles of freeform optics design methods.
- Design methods for freeform imaging and non-imaging optical systems.
- Processing and testing methods for freeform optical components.
- Installation and adjustment methods of freeform optical systems.
- Applications of freeform optics.
Dr. Xianglong Mao
Dr. Jiadong Yu
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Photonics is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- freeform optics
- imaging and non-imaging
- optical design
- ray tracing
- ultra-precision machining
- single-point diamond turning
- polishing
- freeform component measurement
- computer-generated hologram
- computer-aided alignment
- novel applications
- other technologies related to freeform optics
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