Evaluation of polychromatic image quality of a birefringent lens by means of optical transfer function

Polychromatic or white-light optical transfer function (OTF) is put forward as a criterion to evaluate the performance of a uniaxial birefringent lens sandwiched between two linear polarizers. The optic axis of the birefringent crystal is perpendicular to the lens axis. The results show that the same system may be adapted for both enhanced resolution and apodization just by rotating any of the polarizers included in the system even under broadband illumination. The proposed system may also be exploited for image processing applications under polychromatic input illumination.