Spherical Aberration of the Reduced Schematic Eye with Elliptical Refracting Surface

Abstract

We extend the single-surface schematic-eye model of ocular chromatic aberration to account for spherical aberration of the eye. This extension is accomplished by allowing the model's single refracting surface to be a member of the family of ellipses with variable shape parameter (eccentricity). The resulting model, dubbed the “Indiana Eye,” may have either positive or negative spherical aberration of varying degree, depending upon the numerical value of the shape parameter. Spherical aberration of the model eye is well described by third-order optical theory for shape parameters in the range 0 ≤ p ≤ 0.7, but requires fifth-order theory for an accurate description over the parametric range 0.7