Past exam of the physics 2 paper of the University of Oxford / 2021 resit / 9 / d / Solution

A simple converging optical lens bends different wavelengths through different angles because of optical dispersion. For a fixed shape in air, the lensmaker's equation gives $1/f\propto n(\lambda )-1$: the larger short-wavelength refractive index gives a shorter focal length. Different colours therefore form sharp images at different axial positions, causing longitudinal chromatic aberration, blur and coloured fringes in a white-light image. Off the optical axis, colour-dependent transverse magnification can also give lateral chromatic aberration. An achromatic doublet combines suitable optical glasses and curvatures to reduce this wavelength dependence.