AXIAL IMAGING BEHAVIOR OF A SINGLE LENS ILLUMINATED BY AN ULTRASHORT PULSED-BEAM

For an incident pulsed laser beam of femtoseconds, the axial imaging p erformance of an imaging system consisting of a single lens is discuss ed. Both the point spread function and the transfer function for the l ens are examined for both circular and annular pupils. While an annula r lens can be used for compensation for the temporal broadening of the pulse in the focal plane, imaging resolution in the axial direction i s strongly degraded.