Angular aperture

The angular aperture of a thin lens with focal point at F and an aperture of diameter d.

The angular aperture of a lens is the apparent angle of the lens aperture as seen from the focal point:

a=2\arctan \left({\frac {D/2}{f}}\right)=2\arctan \left({\frac {D}{2f}}\right)

where

f is the focal length
D is the diameter of the aperture.

Relation to numerical aperture

In a medium with an index of refraction close to 1, such as air, the angular aperture is approximately equal to twice the numerical aperture of the lens.[1]

Formally, the numerical aperture in air is:

\mathrm {NA} =\sin a/2=\sin \arctan \left({\frac {D}{2f}}\right)

In the paraxial approximation, with a small aperture, D<f:

\mathrm {NA} \approx a/2

References

  1. ↑ Albert Abraham Michelson (1995). Studies in Optics. Courier Dover. p. 32. ISBN 0-486-68700-7.

See also

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