Simulated calculation for effect of temperature on refractive index in optical system

A new method to calculate the effect of temperature on refractive index is presented. A continuous temperature field was created in lens by fitting discrete node temperatures obtained from the finite element thermal analysis. Based on the temperature and input data of ray tracing points, the relative refractive index and its gradient information were calculated and returned to CODE V by the selfmade subroutine in ray tracing process, which made the simulation more accurate. Parameters such as wavelength, atmospheric pressure, temperature coefficient of the refractive index were inputted as variables to make the calculation of the relative refractive index more flexible. At last, the analysis of the calculation error was performed, and feasibility of the way was confirmed.