Optimizing optical systems with active components

Abstract

The increasing requirement on the performance of optical instruments leads to more complex optical systems including active optical components. The role of these components is to correct for environmental influences on the instrument and reduce manufacturing and alignment residuals. We describe a method that can be used to design and operate instruments with active components that are not necessarily located in the pupil. After the optical system is designed, the next step is to analyse the available degrees of freedom (DOF), select the best set and include them in the active component. By performing singular value decomposition (SVD) and regularization of the sensitivity matrix, the most efficient DOF for the active component can be calculated. In operation of the instrument, the wavefront at the pupil plane is reconstructed from phase diversity (PD); a metrology having minimal impact on instrument design. Information from SVD, forward and reverse optimization are used to model the process, explore the parameter space and acquire knowledge on convergence. The results are presented for a specific problem. Show more