A novel method for finding the initial structure parameters of optical systems via a genetic algorithm

•We believe that two aspects of this manuscript will make it interesting to general readers of Optical Communication.•A novel method is proposed for determining initial structure of optical systems.•An Off-axis three-mirror telecentric system with wide field-of-view is designed.

A novel method for finding the initial structure parameters of an optical system via the genetic algorithm (GA) is proposed in this research. Usually, optical designers start their designs from the commonly used structures from a patent database; however, it is time consuming to modify the patented structures to meet the specification. A high-performance design result largely depends on the choice of the starting point. Accordingly, it would be highly desirable to be able to calculate the initial structure parameters automatically. In this paper, a method that combines a genetic algorithm and aberration analysis is used to determine an appropriate initial structure of an optical system. We use a three-mirror system as an example to demonstrate the validity and reliability of this method. On-axis and off-axis telecentric three-mirror systems are obtained based on this method.