Analytical Study of Optical Wavefront Aberrations Using Maple

Abstract

This paper describes a package for analytical ray tracing of relatively simple optical systems. AESOP (An Extensible Symbolic Optics Package) enables analysis of the effects of small optical element misalignments or other perturbations. (It is possible to include two or more simultaneous independent perturbations.) Wavefront aberrations and optical path variations can be studied as functions of the perturbation parameters. The power of this approach lies in the fact that the results can be manipulated algebraically, allowing determination of misalignment tolerances as well as developing physical intuition, especially in the picometer regime of optical path length variations.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
May 01, 1996
Accession Number
ADA423634

Entities

People

  • Marc A. Murison

Organizations

  • United States Naval Observatory

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Space

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Abstracts
  • Compression Ratio
  • Computer Programs
  • Computers
  • Detectors
  • Diffraction
  • Holographic Optical Elements
  • Interferometers
  • Misalignment
  • Numerical Analysis
  • Observatories
  • Optical Analysis
  • Optics
  • Perturbations
  • Ray Tracing
  • Refraction
  • Wavefronts

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Calculus or Mathematical Analysis
  • Optical Physics and Photonics.
  • Wave Propagation and Nonlinear Chaotic Dynamics.