A novel ray refraction matrix for curved interface

A problem in fundamental 2 × 2 ray matrix for refraction at curved interface proposed by A. E. Siegman was found out and a novel one was derived in this paper. An experiment is introduced in detail to verify the reasonability of the novel ray matrix. Using the novel 2 × 2 ray matrix, augmented 5 × 5 ray matrix of refraction at misaligned curved interface between media of different refractive indices was deduced. With the refraction matrix, it is easy to characterize the effect of an astigmatic thick lens. The augmented ray matrix approach was applied to model and estimate the performance of an optical alignment system. Utilizing these matrices, one can readily design and evaluate optical systems, where contain astigmatic elements such as tilted spherical or cylindrical lenses, mirrors and so on. These results are also useful for cavity design, alignment, ray tracing and beam position control in 3D optical systems.