Mediaspace scheduled maintenance: Aug 25, 2026 07:00 - 12:00 AM. During this time, videos will be temporarily unavailable. Check status updates.

Lecture

Optical Aberrations: Understanding Spherical, Chromatic, Coma, Astigmatism, and More

In course

MICRO-561: Fundamentals of biomicroscopy

Introduction to the basic operational principles of the most commonly used optical microscopes such as widefield and fluorescence.
Introduction to essential microscopy components such as lenses, objectives, filters, cameras and light sources. ...

Description

This lecture covers the common optical aberrations in microscopy, such as spherical aberration, chromatic aberration, coma, astigmatism, curvature of field, and distortion. It explains how incident rays are focused at different locations, the impact of using apertures to reduce light extent, and the dispersion of light through different materials. The correction methods for chromatic aberration using compound lenses are discussed, along with the major optical aberrations affecting image quality. The lecture also delves into the off-axis aberrations like coma and astigmatism, illustrating how they affect image formation and the solutions to correct them.

This video is available exclusively on Mediaspace for a restricted audience. Please log in to MediaSpace to access it if you have the necessary permissions.

Watch on Mediaspace

Instructors (2)

Hatice Altug

2020-current Full Professor at the Institute of Bioengineering, EPFL, Switzerland2013-2020 Associate Professor (with tenure) at the Institute of Bioengineering, EPFL, Switzerland 2013 Associate Professor (with tenure) at Electrical and Computer Engineering Department of Boston University, USA 2007-2013 Assistant Professor (tenure-track) at Electrical and Computer Engineering Department of Boston University, USA 2007 Post-doctoral Fellow at Center for Engineering in Medicine of Harvard Medical School, USA 2000-2007 PhD. in Applied Physics at Stanford University, USA 1996-2000 B.S. in Physics at Bilkent University, Turkey

Arne Seitz

04/1996-06/2000 Scientific co-worker at Philipps-University of Marburg, Dep. of Physical Chemistry 07/2000-10/2002 Post Doc at Max-Planck Unit for Structural Molecular Biology in Hamburg 11/2002-11/2005 Post Doc at European Molecular Biolohy Laboratory (EMBL), Cell Biology and Cell Biophysics Programme 11/2005-03/2009 Staff Scientist at Advanced Light Microscopy Facility, EMBL 04/2009- Head of Bioimaging and Optics platforme (BIOP), Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)

Official source

Ontological neighbourhood

Physics

Optics: Geometrical optics

Related concepts (32)

Optical aberration

In optics, aberration is a property of optical systems, such as lenses, that causes light to be spread out over some region of space rather than focused to a point. Aberrations cause the image formed by a lens to be blurred or distorted, with the nature of the distortion depending on the type of aberration. Aberration can be defined as a departure of the performance of an optical system from the predictions of paraxial optics.

Spherical aberration

In optics, spherical aberration (SA) is a type of aberration found in optical systems that have elements with spherical surfaces. Lenses and curved mirrors are prime examples, because this shape is easier to manufacture. Light rays that strike a spherical surface off-centre are refracted or reflected more or less than those that strike close to the centre. This deviation reduces the quality of images produced by optical systems. The effect of spherical aberration was first identified by Ibn al-Haytham who discussed it in his work Kitāb al-Manāẓir.

Coma (optics)

In optics (especially telescopes), the coma (ˈkoʊmə), or comatic aberration, in an optical system refers to aberration inherent to certain optical designs or due to imperfection in the lens or other components that results in off-axis point sources such as stars appearing distorted, appearing to have a tail (coma) like a comet. Specifically, coma is defined as a variation in magnification over the entrance pupil. In refractive or diffractive optical systems, especially those imaging a wide spectral range, coma can be a function of wavelength, in which case it is a form of chromatic aberration.

Lens

A lens is a transmissive optical device that focuses or disperses a light beam by means of refraction. A simple lens consists of a single piece of transparent material, while a compound lens consists of several simple lenses (elements), usually arranged along a common axis. Lenses are made from materials such as glass or plastic and are ground, polished, or molded to the required shape. A lens can focus light to form an , unlike a prism, which refracts light without focusing.

Defocus aberration

In optics, defocus is the aberration in which an image is simply out of focus. This aberration is familiar to anyone who has used a camera, videocamera, microscope, telescope, or binoculars. Optically, defocus refers to a translation of the focus along the optical axis away from the detection surface. In general, defocus reduces the sharpness and contrast of the . What should be sharp, high-contrast edges in a scene become gradual transitions. Fine detail in the scene is blurred or even becomes invisible.

Related lectures (33)

Optical Aberrations: Spherical and Chromatic

Explores spherical aberration, astigmatism, coma, and chromatic aberration in lenses.

Optical Aberrations: Understanding and Minimizing

Explores optical aberrations, including spherical aberration, coma, and astigmatism, and provides strategies to minimize them.

Microscopic Analyses & Electron Sources

Covers microscopic analyses using optical and electron microscopy, as well as electron sources.