Conformal dome aberration correction with gradient index optical elements.

A conformal dome optical system was established and aberration characteristics of the dome were investigated using Zernike aberration theory. The conformal dome was designed with gradient index element. The designing method was introduced and the optimizing results were analyzed in detail. The results show that the Zernike aberrations produced by the conformal dome decreased dramatically. Also, a complete conformal optical system was designed to further illustrate the aberration correction effect of gradient index elements. The results show that the utilization of gradient index optical elements not only improves the imaging quality, but also simplifies the structure of the conformal optical system.