| Doublet lenses
Doublet lenses are used to produce a higher quality image than singlet lenses of which they easily out perform, even in monochromatic light. Doublet lenses are made up of two different types of glass, a flint and crown glass. These doublet lenses are designed to correct spherical aberration and coma as well as for chromatic aberration. Freedom from spherical aberration means that the focal length is independent of aperture. Doublet lenses performance and usages depend on the relative aperture. All but the largest apertures are diffraction-limited on axis and give excellent imaging over a small field (say 5°) as required for microscopes etc.
Negative doublets are commonly inserted between an objective and its image to increase the tube length (as in microscopy) or magnification (as in astronomy) they are therefore optimised for these conditions of 2x. |