Compared with traditional spherical and aspherical optical surfaces, non-rotationally symmetric freeform optical surface can offer much more degrees of design freedom and structure flexibility for optical design. Therefore, freeform optical surfaces can be used to achieve advanced system specifications and high imaging or non-imaging performance while reducing the number of elements of the system as well as the size and weight of the system. The use of freeform surfaces is regarded as a revolution in the field of optical system design. In recent years, with the rapid developments of manufacturing and metrology techniques, freeform optics have been increasingly used in imaging applications including off-axis reflective space cameras, head-mounted displays, head-up displays, lithography, and non-imaging applications including road lighting and laser beam shaping.

There are many advantages of freeform optics in both the imaging and non-imaging system applications. As the surface shape of non-rotationally symmetric freeform surface is very different from traditional spherical and aspherical surfaces, some basic theories of freeform optical design, including the aberration theory, surface description method, tolerancing method, etc, remain to be discovered and investigated. Meanwhile, as the system and surface are nonsymmetric and advanced system specifications as well as functions are often required, the design of freeform imaging and non-imaging systems is very difficult, and may require extensive time and human effort. Generalized and high-efficient design and optimization methods of freeform imaging and non-imaging optical systems are needed. In addition, advanced metrology and assembly techniques of freeform optics are the key for the high-performance system development. With all the above research advances, the applications of freeform optics in various fields can be realized according to specific design requirements and functions.

The scope of the Research Topics covers all aspect of freeform optics from theory to applications. Contributions in the form of original research articles and reviews are welcomed. Potential topics include but are not limited to the following:

- Description and characterization of freeform optics
- Aberration theory of freeform optics
- Design methods of freeform optics for imaging and non-imaging applications
- Tolerancing of freeform optics
- Metrology of freeform optics
- System assembly of freeform optics
- Applications of freeform optics
- Combination of freeform optics and computational imaging
- Combination of freeform optics with diffractive optics, holographic optics and metasurface

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