Zernike test. I - Analytical aspects. II - Experimental aspects

The Zernike phenomenon is interpreted in general interferometric terms to gain insight into the optimum design of disks suitable for a particular experimental situation. The design of Zernike disks for measuring small low-order aberrations is considered and evaluated; optimum parameters for disks 2, 3, 4, and 5 microns in radius are determined for an f/12 large-space-telescope system with an obscuration ratio of 0.4 at 0.6 micron. It is shown that optimization in this case provides sensitivities of better than one hundredth of a wavelength for the measurement of low-order aberrations. The procedure for manufacturing a Zernike disk is then described in detail, and results are reported for tests of a laboratory Zernike figure sensor containing a disk manufactured according to this procedure. In the tests, a laboratory wavefront-error simulator was used to introduce small aberration ranges, measurements of the changes in reimaged pupil intensity introduced by the disk were made for several aberration settings, and the measured changes were compared with the values predicted by the interferometric theory of Zernike tests. The results are found to agree within an error of one two-hundredth of a wavelength.