Optimal Design of Conventional and Freeform Optical Systems with Memetic Mind Evolutionary Computation Algorithm

This paper studies distinct features between optimization of conventional and freeform optical systems. Freeform optical systems include lens or mirror surfaces with shapes that have no axis of revolution to reach better performance in off-axis designs. They have an increased number of design parameters compared to classical rotationally symmetrical optical systems which makes optimization more difficult. The authors applied several well-known optimization techniques both to a classic system and a freeform system, including commercial methods from Zemax OpticStudio software. In addition, a new parallel memetic algorithm was proposed that outperformed many methods under investigation. The algorithm incorporates local search techniques into an asynchronous parallel computing procedure thus helping to speed-up the convergence to a high-quality solution. The description of the proposed algorithm as well as the results a comparative study are presented in this paper. Computational experiments were conducted for two systems – the Cooke triplet and the freeform prism with two optical surfaces. Obtained results were estimated both from the optimization and optical perspectives.