spherocylinder lenses, page 1 W. F.

Long, 1992
S
S
P
P
H
H
E
E
R
R
O
O
C
C
Y
Y
L
L
I
I
N
N
D
D
E
E
R
R
L
L
E
E
N
N
S
S
E
E
S
S
Cylinder Lenses
A cylinder lens is cut from the surface of a cylinder. Cylinder lenses can
be concave or convex, as shown below.
For the lenses shown, the horizontal meridian looks like a cross-section
of a spherical lens and the vertical meridian looks like a plane wedge. The
focusing of light in these meridians can be handled by the usual simple
paraxial equations. To fully characterize a cylinder lens, not only the
power of the cylinder F but also the angle of orientation of its axis (90
in the figures above) must be specified.
Example: A convex crown glass hemi-cylinder of 5cm radius of
curvature, negligible thickness, and vertical axis refracts
light from a point 20cm away. What happens?
Solution: Find the power in each meridian of the cylindrical lens.
Horizontal meridian: The plane back surface has zero power so
the power in the horizontal meridian is
F
H
=(1.523-1)/0.05=+10.5D.
spherocylinder lenses, page 2 W. F. Long, 1992
Vertical meridian: Both surfaces are plane so there is zero
power in the vertical meridian.
The vergence of light reaching the lens is L=1/(-0.02)=-5.0D.
So in the horizontal meridian the exiting vergence is
L
H
'=F
H
+L=+10.5-5.0=+5.5D
l
H
'=1/L
H
'=1/+5.5D=+18.3cm.
In the vertical meridian which has no power, l
V
'=-20cm.
Seen in perspective, here is what would happen in the two
meridians.
As can be seen, a focal line is formed 18cm behind the lens.
But what goes on in the oblique meridians? These oblique meridans are
not spherical and have no real power. In a certain sense, however, they
have a fictitious power F

=Fsin
2
where F is the cylinder power and the
angle between the meridian in question and the cylinder axis.
focal line

B
spherocylinder lenses, page 3 W. F. Long, 1992
Spherocylindrical Surfaces
Spherical surfaces have the same curvature in all meridians. Cylindrical
surfaces are flat in one meridian and have maximum curvature in another,
perpendicular, meridian. But lots of surfaces are curved in all meridians
with different curvatures in all meridians, for example, donuts and
watermelons. The simplest such surfaces are toric surfaces and toric
surfaces are what's used in ophthalmic lenses. Astigmatism can be
corrected with cylinder lenses. In practice it is corrected with lenses
which have toric surfaces.
A toric surface is generated mathematically by rotating a circular arc
around an axis that does not go through the center of the circle. (If we
rotated it around the center of the circle we'd just get a sphere.) This
generates surfaces in barrel form or tire form (donut form) as shown
above.
A spherocylinder lens is usually made by grinding a spherical surface on
one lens surface (the front surface for most spectacle lenses) and a toric
surface for the other lens surface (the back surface for most spectacle
lenses).
barrel form tire form
spherocylinder lenses, page 4 W. F. Long, 1992
The diagram above shows a circular converging lens with a toric front
surface bending light from a point source, B. As can be seen, the lens
forms two perpendicular line foci with a blur circle in between. A
receiving screen placed at any of these positions will show a line or a
circle. At any other position, an ellipse will appear on the screen. Finding
the positions of the line foci and circle of confusion is an interesting
problem. It is solved by redrawing the horizontal and vertical line pencils
in the plane of this page.
B
focal lines
blur circle
spherocylinder lenses, page 5 W. F. Long, 1992

The positions of the two line foci can be calculated from the fundamental
paraxial equation. By applying straightforward, but tedious, geometry to
the figure above, it may be shown that the vergence of light forming the
blur circle is the average of the vergences of light forming horizontal and
vertical line foci, or in equation form,
1/l
C
'=L
C
'=(L
V
'+L
H
')/2=(1/l
V
'+1/l
H
')/2.
The linear interval between the two line foci, incidentally, is called the
interval of Sturm. The half widths of the vertical and horizontal line foci,
w
V
and w
H
, and the radius of the circle of least confusion, w
C
, are
w
V
=p(1-L
V
'/L
H
'),
w
H
=p(L
H
'/L
V
'-1),
w
C
=p[(L
H
'-L
V
')/(L
H
'+L
V
')].
B
vertical line
focus
horizontal line
f ocus
circle of least
confusion
l l '
H
l '
C
p
w
V
w
H
w
C
l '
V
lens
spherocylinder lenses, page 6 W. F. Long, 1992
Example: Find the positions of the line foci and blur circle and the
interval of Sturm for a toric lens with +5.00D in the horizontal
meridian and +8.00D in the vertical meridian when imaging a
point object one meter in front of the lens.
Solution: The incoming vergence is L=1/(-1m)=-1.00D. The outgoing
vergence in the horizontal meridian is +5.00D-1.00D=+4.00D.
This corresponds to a distance of 1/(+4)=+25cm, where the
vertical line focus is formed. In the vertical meridian,
outgoing vergence is +8.00D-1.00D=+7.00D. This corresponds
to a distance of 1/(+7.00)=+14.3cm, where the horizontal line
focus is formed. The interval of Sturm is just
25cm-14.3cm=10.7cm. The vergence going to the blur circle is
(+4+7)/2=+5.5D so the blur circle is 1/(+5.5D)=+18.2cm behind
the lens.
Astigmatic Imagery
An astigmatic system produces "smeared images", the amount and
direction of the smear depending on the position of the receiving plane. At
the horizontal line focus, for example, images will be smeared left to
right while at the vertical line focus they will be smeared up and down.
The "best" focus is usually taken to be in the plane of the circle of least
confusion in which there is at least equal blurring in all directions. The
"best" focus, however, might depend on the task and target. It is likely
that patients with astigmatic eyes are constantly adjusting their focus
along the interval of Sturm. That may account for the eyestrain of
asti gmats.
Ophthalmic Lenses
Spectacle lenses consist of one spherical surface and one toric surface.
Prescri pti ons for spectacl e l enses are, however, wri tten as a
superposition of spherical and cylindrical lenses. There are three ways to
write a spectacle prescription; plus cylinder form (favored by M.D.'s),
minus cylinder form (favored by optometrists), and cross cylinder form
(used, sometimes, in fabrication labs). It's easiest to understand these
forms and their relationship by reference to a power cross like the one
below.
spherocylinder lenses, page 7 W. F. Long, 1992
This cross represents a lens surface as viewed from the doctor's point of
view, i.e. looking straight at the patient. The lens has two principal
meridians (meridians of circular cross-section), with powers F
1
and F
2
.
Their orientations are shown on the diagram.
We could specify the prescription for the lens in the diagram by writing
F
1
@/F
2
@( 90).
( 1)
That is how keratometric findings (measurements of corneal curvature)
are typically written, but lens powers are never written in this form.
Recall that for a pure cylinder lens of power F
C
and axis the prescription
can be written as F
C
x or F
C
@(90).
F

F
2
1
+90
spherocylinder lenses, page 8 W. F. Long, 1992
We can think of the lens in the diagram as a superposition of two cylinder
lenses and write (1) as
F
S
x /(F
S
+F
C
)x(90).
( 2)
Equation (2) is the cross cylinder form. In diagram terms it sets up like
below:
F
1
x(90) F
2
x.
Since you can add sphero-cylinder lenses meridian by meridian, as long as
the principal meridians are the same, you can see that this form gives the
correct prescription.

F
2

F
1
0.0
0.0
+
+90
+90
spherocylinder lenses, page 9 W. F. Long, 1992
Another, more common way of writing the prescription is in sphero-
cylinder form in which the prescription is represented as a spherical lens
of power F
S
superimposed on a cylinder lens with power and axis F
C
x.
This is written in the form
F
S
/ F
C
x.
( 3)
In diagrams, equation (3) is represented as
F
S
F
C
x
The cylinder power can be positive or negative. The sign of the cylinder
determines whether the prescription is in plus or minus cylinder form.
Now the problem is how to relate the sphero-cylinder form (3) to the
crossed cylinder form (2). The key to doing this is in the diagrams.
Clearly, by equating powers in corresponding meridians, F
1
=F
S+
F
C
and
F
2
=F
S
. The cross cylinder form corresponding to the sphero-cylinder form
is thus,
(F
S
+F
C
)x/F
S
x(90).
( 4)

F
C

F
S
+
F
S
+90
+90
0.0
spherocylinder lenses, page 10 W. F. Long, 1992
A given spectacle prescription can be written in any of these forms. The
problem is converting among them. Here are three equivalent forms of a
prescription.
F
S
/F
C
x
(F
S
+F
C
)/(-F
C
)x(90)

(F
S
+F
C
)x/F
S
x(90).
( 5)
If F
C
>0, these are, respectively, the plus cylinder, minus cylinder, and
cross cylinder forms. Note that 90is taken such that
18090>0. In cross cylinder form it is customary to write the meridian
for the smaller angle first.
Let's try it with some numerical examples. In each case there are three
equivalent forms of the same prescription:
+3.00-1.00x030
+2.00+1.00x120
+2. 00x030/ +3. 00x120
-1.50-2.50x100
-4.00+2.50x010
-1. 50x010/ -2. 50x100
+1.00-4.25x025
-3.25+4.25x115
-3. 25x025/ +1. 00x115
pl ano/+0.50x180
+0.50-0.50x090
0. 00x090/ +0. 50x180