title: Minimal optical decomposition of ray transfer matrices.
abstract: The properties of first-order optical systems are described paraxially by a ray transfer matrix, also called the ABCD matrix. Here we consider the inverse problem: an ABCD matrix is given, and we look for the minimal optical system that consists of only lenses and pieces of free-space propagation. Similar decompositions have been studied before but without the restriction to these two element types or without an attempt at minimalization. As the main results of this paper, we found that general lossless one-dimensional optical systems can be synthesized with a maximum of four elements and two-dimensional optical systems can be synthesized with six elements at most.
authors.affiliation: University of Mannheim, D-68131 Mannheim, Germany. xiyuanl@rumms.uni-mannheim.de
authors.forename: Xiyuan
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Karl-Heinz
authors.initials: KH
authors.lastname: Brenner