To design a laser beam director (LBD), we considered the ritchey chretien system with a hyperbolic mirror surface. The aperture sizes of the designed primary mirror and secondary mirror were 800 mm and 120 mm, respectively, and the obstruction ratio was 0.3. Energy distribution on the target surface was studied in terms of a spot diagram and encircled energy in order to investigate the optical performance of the LBD system. As the LBD system was designed to focus on the various positions of target by varying the position of the secondary mirror, we developed the computer program called LOSA (Large Optical System Assessment) to investigate the influence of the position of the secondary mirror on optical performance. To reduce weight of the primary mirror of the LBD, we also considered the primary mirror of a double arch shape with parabolic contours. Deformation of the primary mirror caused by gravity was not rotationally symmetrical about the mirror axis. We also used the LOSA program to analyze the influence of the light weight primary mirror on optical performance, and finally determined the optimum structure of the primary mirror.

Date Published: 1 February 2006
PDF: 8 pages
Proc. SPIE 6034, ICO20: Optical Design and Fabrication, 60341A (1 February 2006); doi: 10.1117/12.668143

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 6034:
ICO20: Optical Design and Fabrication
James Breckinridge; Yongtian Wang, Editor(s)