Measurement and comparison of one- and two-dimensional modulation transfer function of optical imaging systems based on the random target method

One-dimensional modulation transfer function (1-D MTF) has been generally calculated to evaluate the image quality of optical imaging systems, such as the horizontal MTF and vertical MTF. These MTFs can be measured by the use of some mature ways. However, the information of 1-D MTF for performance evaluation may not enough for the systems handling two-dimensional (2-D) targets of high resolution, thus discussing 2-D MTF will be necessary. We investigate the measurement method for the 1-D and 2-D MTF of optical imaging systems based on the random target method, and the characteristics of 2-D MTF and 1-D MTF in terms of MTF values and cutoff frequency are also noted. (C) The Authors. Published by SPIE under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.