Research and optimized design of depth-of-field extension in infrared wavefront coding systems

This study presents an optimized wavefront coding (WFC) system for extending the depth-of-field (DOF) and achieving athermalization in infrared space target detection. A cubic phase mask (CPM) is integrated at the aperture stop of a sixelement infrared optical system (focal length: 30 mm, F#2.4, wavelength: 0.85–1.7μm) to modulate the optical wavefront. Through parameter optimization and multi-configuration thermal modeling in Zemax, the system simultaneously addresses thermal defocus from ambient temperature fluctuations (−40°C to 60°C) and focal drift within ±1000 mm.