DESIGN OF UNOBSCURED REFLECTIVE OPTICAL SYSTEMS WITH GENERAL SURFACES

Unobscured reflective optical systems can be more transmissive and of higher diffraction quality than classical systems. Unobscured systems are generated by decentering symmetric systems, tilting elements to correct coma or astigmatism along a real ray, or by cross-tilting elements to control astigmatism. Such a system of relatively high quality may be further corrected with a general spline surface. For spline surfaces, optical aberration coefficients are undefined.; This study developed real ray analysis and design techniques for general optical systems. A decentered symmetric system with a field correcting spline surface was designed. The optical design program ACCOS V was used for most design and analysis tasks.; Design and analysis of general systems are considered first. Basic system quantities of image location, scaling, and irradiation are defined with real rays. Spline surfaces are discussed with special emphasis on features important in optical design. Real ray analytical techniques of composite spot diagrams across the image, footprints on spline surfaces, wavefront aperture maps, and spline surface maps are described. The use of these tools in general system design procedures is discussed.; Standard telescope objectives of f/8.5 were considered as base designs for systems with spline surfaces. A spline surface was added to the decentered Schmidt-Cassegrain. Optimization yielded diffraction-limited performance across a 0.85 degree square field. The spline system was compared to the Galileo spacecraft narrow angle lens and a three-mirror decentered design. It had a far wider field than the Galileo but at a lower quality. Diffraction quality was better than that of the three-mirror system. Simple tolerances were considered for the spline system. The allowable effect of a thermal gradient was estimated by bending the reference axis. Decentration and figure tolerances for the spline were commensurate with classical surfaces.; Techniques presented were shown to be useful for design and analysis of general systems. Spline surfaces were found to be useful in optimization of such systems. This work was supported by the Director's Discretionary Fund, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology.