Computer Aided Geometrical Optics Design.

Abstract

The purpose of this thesis was to employ the FALCON optical design computer program to accomplish the design and analysis of a complex optical system. To this end, a working knowledge of the code, its capabilities, its limitations, and of optical design techniques were all gained. The FALCON optical design and evaluation computer program was examined and applied to two efforts. The first effort involved the evaluation of a Cooke triplet and manual verification of some of the code's results. The second effort was the design of a beam expander, the function of which is to expand and square a high aspect ratio rectangular laser beam. The system uses a single spherical mirror and two cylindrical mirrors to produce the desired output. A brief discussion of the diffraction theory of aberrations and aberration balancing gives some of the basis upon which the FALCON code is constructed.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Dec 01, 1983
Accession Number
ADA144559

Entities

People

  • D. J. Tipple

Organizations

  • Air Force Institute of Technology

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms
  • Counter WMD
  • Cyber
  • Energy and Power Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Aspect Ratio
  • Computer Programs
  • Computers
  • Coordinate Systems
  • Data Sets
  • Diffraction
  • Focal Planes
  • Geometry
  • Graphics
  • Laser Beams
  • Lasers
  • Optics
  • Ray Tracing
  • Refraction
  • Refractive Index
  • Three Dimensional

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Electromagnetic Wave Scattering and Antenna Radiation Engineering
  • Optical Physics and Photonics.
  • Systems Analysis and Design

Technology Areas

  • Directed Energy